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Adelphi University

When to use Google Scholar

Benefits and limits of Google Scholar

BENEFITS OF GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Benefits of Google Scholar

Positive and negative

  • Often a useful place to start when you already have an author, article title, good keywords
  • Searches scholarly articles, scholarly books, conference papers
  • In some cases, results will show a link to your university or institution. (ex:Find it @ Adelphi) Following that link can give you access to the full text.
  • Google Scholar links directly to Google Books.
  • Google Scholar can also offer you a starting point to finding other relevant literature on your topic by:
    • linking to articles that cite the article (ex: Cited by 440)
    • linking to ‘related’ or similar articles (ex: Related articles)
    • linking to all versions of the article (ex: All 10 versions) 
  • Google Scholar is valuable when you do not have access to databases with scholarly journals. You can take the citation (if the article is not fully available on GS) to your local library and they will order the article for you through interlibrary loan.