Finding resources: Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free internet search engine focused on finding sources it considers to be scholarly literature. These sources can include journal articles, books, thesis, conference papers and reports covering a range of subjects.

The sources may originate from academic and commercial publishers, scholarly and professional societies and online repositories.

The full text of some sources found via Google Scholar will be freely available while others may require payment or opening an account with the source's provider.

It can be a good starting point for your research and you can link Google Scholar to Locate, the library catalogue.

Given Google Scholar's limitations other sources should also be used to conduct a comprehensive literature search.

A wide variety of sources are available via Google Scholar including journal articles, books, reports and conference papers. You will also find dissertations, theses, and unpublished versions of articles.

Where an item is available in full text, a link to the [PDF], [HTML], or [DOC] will appear on the right side of the screen. You may also find sources that require a payment to view in full, as well as references to printed books and journals that are not available online.

Credibility
It is important to evaluate your sources from Google Scholar for credibility as not all publications will be peer-reviewed. Assess whether the source is a suitable for inclusion in your assignment as Google's definition of scholarly may not be the same as your tutor's definition.

Coverage
Search robots must be able to be successfully crawl, identify and process items from external websites to include them in Google Scholar.

There can be a time delay before journal articles appear, or information about them is updated, on Google Scholar and you may miss out on relevant articles if you do not combine your search with other research sources.

Searching Options

The basic and advanced search screens do not offer as many pre-defined options as some of the Library's databases. A more complex search can be created manually by users who feel confident to do so.

Results List Ranking

Google Scholar uses specific criteria to rank items in its results list and this criteria varies from what is used in Locate and other Library databases. This may affect how useful the first items in the results list are to you.

Filtering Results
Filtering your results by date or relevancy are the only ways to change how the results are presented to you - these may not be the most efficient or effective tools to help identify items of most use to you.

Type in one or more keywords into the search box and a list of items that match your search will be returned to you. Google Scholar will match items that include all your keywords. 
 

You can use some of the same searching tips in Google Scholar that you could use in Google to help make your results more relevant - specifically domain, file type and all in title searching.

You can review our basic and advanced searching for academic sources guidance to help you create your own search within Google Scholar. (Truncation may not work in Google Scholar.)

A link can be established between Google Scholar and Locate to automatically check if any items are held in full text by our Library:

• Select Settings from the menu option
• Select Library links
• Search for Coventry and select Coventry University - Locate it
• Untick the Open WorldCat option
• Save your changes at the bottom.

You will now see the Locate It link in the search results. This will link you to the item when it's available from Coventry University. If the item is not available via Locate, you can request a copy from the Document Supply Service.

In the results list entry, click on the quotation marks to get a suggested APA reference and/or to download the entry to EndNote or Zotero.

We would recommend double checking the suggested APA reference against the University's referencing guide as they can contain errors.

Google Scholar does not suggest references in the OSCOLA referencing style.

Once you have found an item of interest to you in the results list, you can use functionality within Google Scholar to find similar items.

In the results list entries:

Cited by shows other items that have referenced this one. A higher number suggests the item has made a bigger impact on this area of research but there can be many reasons - good and not so good - for citing another item. Double check they are suitable for your work before using them.

Related articles shows similar items on the same topic area.

Create or sign in to your personal Google account to enable features, such as saving results and creating alerts. Authors can also manage and potentially improve how their publications are presented in Google Scholar.

Save in each results list entry lets you store that item in My Library.

My Profile helps authors to manage and showcase their publications, see who is citing them and check their citation metrics.   My Library is your personal collection of materials. You can save and organize materials using your own labels. Create alerts based on topics of personal interest and/or individual authors and Google Scholar will periodically email you matching newly published papers.