Smaro Lazarakis | Clinical Librarian
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday
ORCID ID 0000-0002-3618-9605
Catherine Voutier | Clinical Librarian
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
ORCID ID 0000-0002-1627-0342
Geoff Hill | Clinical Librarian
Monday - Friday
Scholar is a favourite tool of many researchers, however it can be frustrating - frequently returning overwhelming numbers of results.
Follow the slides below to learn how to get the most out of Scholar.
Scholar is not a database, it is a search engine.
Scholar applies a ranking algorithm to the results.
Scholar does not allow structured searches (as used in databases).
Boolean operator OR can be used for synonyms
The pipe symbol | can be used in place of OR
leave no space either side of | (on most keyboards | is above the back slash)
AND is implicit (no need to enter it)...
...but if you want to make it clear you can use the + symbol
Maximum search command is 256 characters.
Domain limits will work if Scholar indexes the site in question
Scholar searches the full text of articles
Unlike databases like Medline there is no schedule for updating Scholar.
New articles appear when Google's bots find and index them.
So newly published articles may not be found,
or they may be further down the results as they have no citations or links yet.
Scholar tracks citations - use the "Cited by" link to see articles which have cited this article.
You can copy the citation using the symbol under the reference.
To link results to full text:
Now when you search you will see links to your library access.
You can create a library of articles:
Export to a reference manager program from 'My Library'
Both Google and Google Scholar may return different results depending on location, user, prior search history, computing system and over time.
For this reason they are not recommended as the prime information source for research with implied replicability, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
They can be used as a supplemental source, or for research with no implied replicability or rigour.
Add these operators in the search box to focus your search.
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Uni of Adelaide video: Find Grey Literature with Google Advanced Search (2.02 min)