Research Guides: Google Scholar: Home

What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is Google's academic search engine that searches a wide array of scholarly literature. It has extensive coverage, retrieving information from:

Articles
Books
Dissertations
Professional publications
University repositories
Professional websites covering all disciplines

This makes Google Scholar a good place to look when searching for:

Obscure references difficult to find in library databases
Incorrectly cited works, or when you only have a partial citation
Grey literature not often indexed elsewhere
Useful journals or databases to explore in more detail

Keep In Mind

Google Scholar searches a wide variety of sources, and not all results will be considered Scholarly or Peer Reviewed. Always double check the credibility of your sources before including them in your project.
You may see a long list of sources, but you will only have immediate access to materials that are Open Access (free) or available through Phillips Library database collections. If you find something that is not accessible, you can request it via the Interlibrary Loan.
Compared to specialized databases, Google Scholar is broad and less refined. If your research topic requires comprehensive or targeted searching try using one of the subject specific Library Databases that fits your needs.
Google Scholar has limited filtering options making it tricky to sort through a long list of results. Keywords and the advanced search features may help narrow down results list, but if you're not finding what you're looking for, or are overwhelmed with the number of results try using the library catalog or one of the library databases, which have more robust filtering options.