What is Google Scholar?

In November 2004, Google introduced a new product that searches scholarly literature. Materials you may find in Google Scholar include peer-reviewed papers, dissertations, book citations, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from a variety of content providers. Sources of material include academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and open access publishers. Some content is available in full text.

How do I access what I find in Google Scholar?

On-campus

When searching Google Scholar on campus, full text resources that are available from Rutgers University Libraries-subscribed databases or electronic journals will be automatically accessible. If you are unable to access the full text, please check IRIS. It is possible that the Libraries may own the material identified in Google Scholar.

Off-campus

As long as you are logged into the library with your NetID and you connect to Google Scholar from this page, you will be able to access full text resources found in Google Scholar that are available from the Libraries-subscribed databases or electronic journals.

How do I search Google Scholar?

You can search Google Scholar in the same manner as regular Google. An Advanced Scholar Search page permits you to search for author, publisher, and publication date. For more information, see: http://scholar.google.com/scholar/refinesearch.html

How Does Google Scholar Work?

Rankings- Google Scholar ranks and lists results according to how relevant they are to the search query. The rankings include how often the work was cited in resources indexed in the Google Scholar database. For more information on relevancy ranking see: http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html

Cited By- Selecting the Cited By link will display a list of items that have cited the original document. However, Google Scholar is not comprehensive for citation analysis as it only includes documents indexed within its database. For more complete citation searching please use Web of Science

Full text- Not every item will lead to full text. Some entries, usually enclosed in brackets, e.g., [citation], [book], are simply citations from documents indexed in the Google Scholar database. Please check IRIS to see if the Libraries own these materials.

What about books?

You can use Google Scholar to identify book materials and see if they are located in our library by selecting the Library Search link on your list of results. To find a copy of the book for sale, click Web Search. If you don't find a book in Google Scholar, please check IRIS. For books not owned by the Libraries, you may use E-ZBorrow

How comprehensive is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is not considered comprehensive for academic content. For the most thorough search of a topic, consult the subject specific indexes and databases to which the Libraries subscribe. For a complete list, see: Indexes and Databases.

Help

For more information about Google Scholar consult this page: http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html.

Please visit any Rutgers University Libraries Reference Desk for further assistance with this product or any other resource. You can also email Ask a Librarian with any questions.