What is Google Scholar™?
- A database of journal articles, technical reports, preprints, theses, books and other documents and selected web pages from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
- Covers a great range of topics, but is strongest in the sciences and medicine.
- Designed for users who want something good enough for the task at hand, but not comprehensive or exhaustive research.
- Results are arranged by relevance based on weighing the full text of each article, the author, the publication in which the article appears, and how often the piece has been cited in other scholarly literature.
Go to Google Scholar™ (http://scholar.google.com)
More questions? Ask a Librarian.
Advantages/Disadvantages
Advantages
- Great breadth of coverage.
- Very simple search interface. Try using Advanced Scholar Search to limit search by author, publication, date, subject area.
- Each result includes a useful is cited by # link, which connects the result to other items in the Google Scholar™ database that reference the item.
Disadvantages
- Very rudimentary search features.
- Lack of transparency of database content.
- Uneven coverage (time and scope).
- Delayed indexing (items take a while to get into the Google Scholar™ database).
More questions? Ask a Librarian.
Linking to full-text
Linking to full-text (from UW campus)
- If you are on the UW campus network, look for a Find It at UW Madison link below the entry. This will get you to the Find It page for that item. Please note that because Google Scholar™ includes many different types of documents from many different sources, not all entries will have a Find It at UW Madison link.
Remote access to full-text
- Click on Scholar Preferences (next to the search box).
- Type Wisconsin in the Library Links box and click Find Library.
- Select University of Wisconsin - Madison (Find It at UW Madison).
- Click on Save Preferences (bottom of page).
More questions? Ask a Librarian.