Google Scholar, Databases and Research: Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides an easy way to search broadly for scholarly literature across a range of disciplines and topics. As with a general Google search, Google Scholar attempts to bring the more relevant results to the top of the results list.

Ask yourself:

• When should you use Google Scholar, and when should you use a different search engine?
• When would it be more productive to use a database that the Library subscribes to for students, faculty, and staff?

The sections to the left that outline the major advantages and disadvantages of Google Scholar will help you find the answers to these questions, so that you can choose the most effective means to finding what you need for your scholarly research.

The Research & Instruction Librarians are available to help you with your research.

Google Scholar can be useful when searching:

• "Grey literature" such as conference proceedings
• Across multiple disciplines
• For multiple types of documents (articles, proceedings, books)

Google Scholar can also help you quickly identify who is publishing in your area of research.

Drawbacks to Google Scholar include:

• not knowing when it's updated
• many older articles
• can't browse by title
• no suggestions provided for limiting searches (such as alternative words for a topic)

If you need advanced features or recent articles, try one of the databases the library subscribes to. Our subject guides can help you select an appropriate database.