Google Scholar: What Is It and How Do You Use It?

What Is Google Scholar?

By entering the same words you would use in the regular Google search engine, you can find academic research that would otherwise appear much further down the results because of weaker search rankings.

Google Scholar contains abstracts of academic publications and, when available, their full versions. You can also find research reports, conference papers, academic theses, and patents.

It is a vast database that even beginners should be able to navigate. Enter relevant keywords or phrases in the search bar. However, it is best to use individual, fairly specific phrases. Broad queries will produce many results that may not be useful to you.

Navigating the search engine is very intuitive, and the left-hand panel offers several filters that can make your work easier. First, you can select the date range you are interested in, since broad keywords may return publications from as far back as the late nineteenth century.

You can then sort the results by relevance, meaning how closely they match the words you searched for. Another option lets you search in any language or restrict the results to a selected language, such as English or another language of your choice. The final, often overlooked option is searching for patents and citations. It is best to deselect these if you are looking for specific academic research.

Google Scholar is particularly useful for people who are not familiar with English keywords because it is also effective at finding publications in other languages. Its collection is extensive, so you are quite likely to find research that interests you. The search engine also lets you create alerts, helping you stay up to date with topics that matter to you.

Additional Options

Google Scholar also offers several useful features beyond searching for publications. Under each publication, you will find a star icon, a quotation-mark icon, the citation count, related articles, and all versions. On the right side of an article, if a PDF version is available, you will see the word “PDF”; clicking it starts the download.

The first icon, the star, lets you add articles to your library in your Google Account. “My library” is located on the right, just below your Google Account icon. In the library, you will find all the articles you have marked with a star. You can edit their bibliographic data or export them in BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan, and CSV formats.

The next icon is a quotation mark labeled “Cite.” It allows you to generate a bibliographic citation in MLA, APA, and ISO 690 styles for BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan, and RefWorks. Next is the “Cited by” feature, which shows who has cited the article you are interested in. “Related articles” is a very similar option.

The “Cited by” and “Related articles” features help you find similar publications without having to continue browsing Scholar—the remaining information may be available there. The final option, “All versions,” displays every available version of a particular article.

Advanced Search in Google Scholar

More advanced users can take advantage of additional Google Scholar search options that narrow down the results. However, few people realize that Scholar includes advanced search features. In the top-left corner, you will find an icon with three horizontal lines: the Menu. Click it to find the “Advanced search” option, which lets you narrow your results. You can specify whether a keyword should appear anywhere in the text or only in the title, and you can also search for works by a particular author.

The first field, “Find articles with all the words,” lets you use the AND operator. This means that the search will return results containing both entered words in the text or title. Both words must be present for a result to appear. The next field, “Find articles with the exact phrase,” lets you search for several words as one phrase. The third field, “Find articles with at least one of the words,” uses the OR operator, returning results that contain at least one of the words you entered. The fourth field, “Find articles without the words,” uses the NOT operator to exclude an unwanted keyword.

Below the search fields, you can choose whether your keywords should appear in the title or anywhere in the text. The fifth field lets you search for works by a specific author. In the sixth field, you can enter the name of a particular publication, while the final field lets you search for publications from specific years.

Is Google Scholar Enough to Find Relevant Publications?

Scholar is mainly suitable for beginners and students, but it works best when you are looking for very specific information. Its main limitation is that the articles it displays are highly selective, so finding what you need can take some time. In other search engines, such as ScienceDirect, you can narrow the results by the type of publication you are looking for. This is especially helpful when you need several different types of information on one topic.

Imagine that you are writing an article about the role of vitamin D in the immune system. The article needs to be detailed, so you first want to explain what vitamin D is, where it comes from, and how cutaneous synthesis works. Only then will you discuss its effect on the immune system.

When using more advanced search engines, you can enter the keyword “vitamin D” and narrow the publications down to encyclopedias. These sources will provide basic information and describe cutaneous synthesis. To explain the role of vitamin D in immune responses, you will need research and review articles.

Finally, you could search for meta-analyses on specific infectious diseases and blood vitamin D levels. Google Scholar does not allow you to filter results this way. If you enter the keywords “vitamin D” and “infectious diseases,” you will see a wide range of publications, from which you may be able to identify only a few useful sources.

Let us return to the vitamin D example. If you enter only “vitamin D” into the search engine, you will probably see several general publications about vitamin D. However, further down the results, you may find connections such as vitamin D and diabetes or vitamin D and cardiovascular disease. This gives you a broader understanding of the subject and shows how varied the functions of vitamin D can be.

If you are a beginner, this guide should help you search Google Scholar more effectively. Do not be afraid to use the advanced options, as they can make your work much easier. Other useful databases for medical research include ResearchGate, ScienceDirect, and PubMed.