8.2: Google Scholar

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Google Scholar indexes peer-reviewed articles in much the same way that vanilla Google indexes web pages. Unfortunately, Google Scholar does not own the content of the articles it indexes. So while a Google Scholar search may yield genuinely useful, high quality results, the full text of the articles may not be available. Note, though, that there are two major exceptions:

Content owned by your library

If the article in your Google Scholar search results is owned by your library, you may have access to it in your Google Scholar results. Click on “settings” and then “library links” to see if your campus is set up to work with Google Scholar, or just check with your local librarians. A “Google Scholar” link that automatically connects you to content your library owns may be available on your library’s website.

Open Access Journal articles

Because of the high cost of peer-reviewed journal subscriptions, a number of journal publishers have switched to an open access publishing model. In addition, many universities have adopted open access mandates, requiring that their researchers make copies of their research freely available in institutional repositories. Accessing these open-access articles requires no special fees or affiliations.

TIP: The option to do an “advanced search” in Google Scholar currently only appears after an initial search. Once you have done a search, look for the downward arrow on the right side of the screen to select “advanced search.” From here you can search for articles by title, author, or publication.