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Google Scholar

Adapted from What Google Scholar Can Do for You, used with the permission of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
  • URL: https://libguides.cfcc.edu/Google-Scholar
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    • Basic Google Scholar Search

    Google Scholar Search

    Understanding Your Results List

    Cited by shows a list of works that cited this article.
    The higher the number, the more important the article is in its discipline.

    Related articles redirects to similar articles on the subject

    Links in the far right column to CFCC Journal FInder go to full-text from any CFCC database

    Narrowing Your Results with "Advanced Search"

    Go to Advanced Search through the button made of three horizontal lines in the upper left of the screen: 

    Enter your information on the advanced search screen:

     

    We don't really know how Google Scholar indexes items, but according to Google, "Google Scholar aims to sort articles the way researchers do, 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."

    Not Finding What You Want?

    Try these quick tricks:

    • Use first initials when searching for author names. Many articles only include the first initial of the author.
    • Abbreviations of journal names are often used. Try J Biol Chem rather than Journal of Biological Chemistry.

    Basic Google Scholar Search

    Google Scholar Search

    Customizing Your Google Scholar Searches

    When searching Google Scholar off-campus, you can set your preferences to connect to Cape Fear Community College Library.

    You can also limit only to articles in English.

    Change settings by clicking the "hamburger" icon then the settings icon Gear Icon at the top left of the Google Scholar search page.

    Use "Collections" to de-select patents and "Results per page" to make changes to the length of your results lists.

    Use "Languages" to limit to articles written in English.

    Most important, use "Library links" to search for and select articles from CFCC databases.

    We All Love the Familiar Google Search Box, But ...

    As a research tool, Google Scholar is good for many tasks, and not as good for others. When deciding whether to use Google Scholar or one of the CFCC Library subscription databases, please keep the following in mind:

    Google Scholar is good for...

    • Locating more information on partial citations.
    • Accessing books and articles in a single search.
    • Helping a beginning researcher identify journal titles and authors connected with subjects of interest.

    Google Scholar cannot...

    • Limit search results
    • Browse by title
    • Sort/search by disciplinary field

    Google Scholar returns a list of CITATIONS. Citations will link to full text ONLY if:

    • Cape Fear Community College Library subscribes to the journal
    • the full-text is from an open access journal
    • the researcher posted the article on her/his website.

    Not everything in Google Scholar is scholarly.

    • Google Scholar searches academic websites (.edu) as well as journals and publisher websites. Search results can include powerpoints, news annoucements or unpublished materials as well as articles and books.
    • Google Scholar searches for many kinds of scholarly materials such as journal articles, research reports, dissertations and theses, technical reports, patents, and more.  Most undergraduate users are looking just for published articles and books, but will retrieve many other types of materials.