Google Scholar Google Books Combination handout September 2013docx
Google Scholar Google Books Combination handout September 2013docx
Page 1 of 100
Randy Miller shared this file. Want to do more with it?
  1. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 1of 10AN INTRODUCTION TO GOOGLE SCHOLARRandy L. MillerGraduate Research Assistance LibrarianFall 2022434-592-3096 RLMiller5@liberty.eduWhat does Google Scholar include?Google Scholar www.scholar.google.comprovides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.(Important note: If you are doing a comprehensive review of the literature, you should always check other sources such as Summon and discipline-specific databases rather than relying solely on Google Scholar.)Google Scholar only contains citation references to books, journal articles, and other resources, not general websites like the Google Search engine.It is more complete in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and medicine) literature. It is also fairly comprehensive in the Social Sciences (such as Education and Counseling). Has the fewest indexed articles in the Humanities, including Religion and Biblical Studies.(See the “Metrics” link at the top to show the major disciplines and the most highly indexed journals in each discipline.)It also tends to include more recent literature rather than pre-1990 literaturebecause this older literature has often never been digitized and put on the web. Althoughit contains patent records, court cases, and legal documents, we will not be discussing those in this handout.What are some advantages of using Google Scholar?1.In addition to showing resources like journal articles in our subscription databases, it also shows free “open access” and gray literature items (like conference proceedings, organization white papers, etc.) found on the web. The open access movement is increasing in popularity (e.g., Liberty’s Digital Commons). Some of the items found in Google Scholar are not available in our subscription databases (such asEbscoHost or ProQuest platforms).2.If you choose the Liberty University Library in your initial settings it will point to journal articles (Get it @ LU) and search for books in WorldCat (Library Search).(If you don’t see Get it @ LU, check under the “More” links.)3.The default sort for results is by relevance ranking. Articles that are cited the most by others show up higher in the rankings. The relevance ranking in our subscription databases is often determined by the number of times the search term(s)is found in the metadata.Thus Google Scholar can be helpful in finding key or seminal authors on a topic because they will be the most cited.4.It shows who has cited each work so that you can trace patterns of research. If the older, original article is helpful, it is likely that at least some of the more recent articles that cite the older article will also be helpful in your research.5.It provides suggested machine generated citations in the three format styles used by Liberty University (APA, MLA, and Turabian Notes/Bibliography style).6.If you are a published author (even in Digital Commons) you can trace those who cite your work.7.Like regular Google, it can be more “forgiving” then our subscription databases. So if you are looking for a particulararticle, but you only know partial information it might bring up what you are interested in by providing only incomplete details.
  2. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 2of 10Are there disadvantages to using Google Scholar?1.Google Scholar is compiled by computersscanning the web, rather than professional indexers. This means that there can be greater transcription errors in the data.2.Google Scholar operates on keyword searching only. So there are no indexers adding controlled vocabulary subject headings.So you will have to perform multiple searches for various forms of search terms.3.Google Scholar can’t perform complex Boolean or truncated searches like Ebsco or ProQuest can.4.Like Summon, Google Scholar does not index entire journals or replicate entire databases. It indexes individual articles, particularly ones that have a dedicated web page for individual articles. So there are many journals for which there is no coverageor incomplete coverage.5.It is hard to determine the quality of some sources and how to cite them. For instance, Google Scholar often struggles with essays (chapters from books)or gray literature, not knowing whether to treat them as books or journal articles.6.There is not an easy wayto distinguish which articlesare peer-reviewed.7.With a Google Scholar search you cannot:a.search by peer reviewb.sort/search by disciplinary fieldc.limit search resultsin as many ways as you can with our subscription databases (only articles, only books, only full-text, etc.)Finding recent papersYour search results are normally sortedby relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:1.Click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance;2.Click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date;3.Click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by emailas they are added to Google Scholar.Locating the full text of an articleAbstracts are freely available for most of the articles. However, reading the entire article may require a subscriptiondatabase. Don’t ever PAY for articles. If Liberty doesn’t have it, we can try to borrow it from another library. Here're a few things to try:1.click a library link, e.g., "Get it @LU", to the right of the search result;2.click a link labeled [PDF] (or DOC or HTML) to the right of the search result;3.click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources;4.click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.If you are a current facultyor staff member or a currently enrolled Liberty student, you shouldsee “Get it @LU" on campus. Off campus, you need to tell Google Scholar what institution you are associated with. 1.Go to “Settings” and then “Library Links” and type in “Liberty University.” (Choose “Get it @ LU” and WorldCat. Don’t choose “Get it @ LU options.”That was for our former article linker and those links won’t work anymore.)2.Links to BL Direct (British Library) are going to try to sell you the article.3.When you click on “Get it @ LU” and then a specific “article” link, if you are off-campus it will require you to log into EZProxy and will then provide access to the article. 4.Some articles might show that they are only be available in our print collection. In that case, you may submit an ILLiad request (there is a link that will automatically fill in the form for you) and we will scan the article for you.5.Sometimes, if you click on the title of an article rather than “Get it @LU” it will offer to sell you the article. Never pay for articles. You can use “Journal Finder” (on the Library’s articles/journals/database page) to see which, if any, of our databases contain the journal and that article or request it via interlibrary loan.What if you just see[Citation] for a particular resource?Citation notations are made when Google knows that a resource exists (because some other source cited it) but they can find no web resource to match it. These tend to be older sourcesor those that don’t have a web page for a specific article or a preview available in Google books. You can either choose to have Google Scholar display these known citations to other works or suppress them by unchecking “include citations” on the left.
  3. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 3of 10Getting better answers1.If you're new to the subject, it may be helpful to pick up the terminology from secondary sources. E.g., a Wikipedia article for "overweight" might suggest a Scholar search for "morbid obesity.” Sometimes there are more scholarly terms used in research rather than the popular terminology. “Heart attacks” might show up in medical articles as “myocardial infarctions.” You might want to do a search on alternate wordings such as both “capitalpunishment” and “death penalty”or both “teenagers” and “adolescents.”2.Remember that scholarly works are usually written by scholars for other scholars. If you want just an initial broad overview of a topic you might want to check Wikipedia (but just use this to become more informed, don’t cite it in your paper), other reference works, textbooks, or popular books or magazines.3.When you find an article that is particularly applicable to your research, you can see whether others have later cited that article. It might say “Cited by 312.” If you click on that link, it will show you the 312 other books or articles within Google Scholar that cited the first article. You can even “search within these results” among the 312 for key words if there is some particular aspect of the topic you are researching.4.Explore! There's rarely asingle answer to a research question. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work, or search for author's name and see what else they have written.Advancedsearch screen features1.If you click on the three line menu in the upper left, you will see an advanced search screen.2.Google suggests using first initials when searching for author names. Many articles only include the first initial of the author.3.Abbreviations of journal names are often used, e.g. J Biol Chem rather than Journal of Biological Chemistry.4.Keep in mind that Google Scholar gathers bibliographical data from text and citations, (including pre-prints, which may include incomplete information). 5.Often, when searching in Google Scholar “less is more.”Only include essential or key terms such as divorce and children rather than “the harmful effects of divorce on children.”To find articles that have cited you1.Start by clicking theAdvanced Scholar Searchlink to the right of the search button.2.Put your name in the “Return articles authored by” box. Google suggests entering your name by putting quotation marks around your first initial(s) and last name (for instance, Jeffrey Dullwould search for"J DULL"), and this is generally the best way to start.ClickSearch Scholar.3.On theresults page,look underneath the article you want to see citations for and click the leftmost link,Cited byfollowed by a number. If you don't see aCited bylink, Google was unable to find any articles that cited it. Click theCited bylink for an article of interest to you.4.You'll see alist of results that have cited this article. 5.You can create an email alert to be notified when others cite you in the future.6.Go to “My Citations”to set up your personalauthor profile.Other Google Scholar Tips and Tricks1.You can click on “Cite” to get a suggested citation. You might have to fix the capitalization or punctuation and in some cases it doesn’t do a great job of distinguishing between books and journal articles.2.In Settings, you can choose which citation manager (such as EndNote, which the Liberty Library provides) to export your citations to. Or, on the fly, you can choose this from the bottom of the “Cite” screen.3.The “My Citations” link is designed for authors and scholars to track their citations, not for students or researchers to have a personal folder like those available in WorldCat, Ebsco, and ProQuest.4.If you are looking for only the latest research, you can set a date range to only displays items within thosedates.
  4. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 4of 105.You can save the URL (web address) for Google Scholar searches to repeat the same search later. You can also “Copy this link” for the Get it @ LU linksScholar finds. These links don’t need proxying information so they will work off campus. When you click on an individual article that the link brings up, that is where you are proxied in.6.If you are off campus, you will often have to tell Google Scholar you are affiliated with Liberty University each time you log in. Your web browser remembers your settings in a "cookie" on your computer's disk,and sends this cookie to the website along with every search. Check that your browser isn't configured to discard cookies. Also, check your privacy settings. Your settings are stored on your computer, not on Google’s servers, so look at your browser's preferences or internet options if it keeps forgetting to show you “Get it @ LU.”7.Remember, if you are on campus and assisting an off-campus student, what you can access from our subscription databases with one click might take some additional steps to see off-campus.8.If you are an author wanting to track your citations, there are other services available such as ISI Web of Science and Scopus. Google Scholar covers a wider variety of subject areas and a greater number of journals than Web of Science but lacksprecise search-refining tools. Search terms are bolded in resultsThis article has 15 different online versionsClick here to see 444 articles that cite this oneThis is an open access PDF you can click to viewSet a date range to find the latest research or particular yearsCreate an alert to receive future results for this topicClick here to see which Liberty journal databases contain the articleClick here to see a suggested citation for the resource
  5. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 5of 10Some other open access sources1.Try a Google “site” search. Entering “site:.edu” (without quotes) before your search term will only show you results from institutions of higher education. These are often more scholarly websites. You can also try “site:.gov,” etc.2.There is a difference between Google alerts and Google Scholar alerts. Google alerts show you if pages show up on your search terms anywhere on the web. Google Scholar alerts just show you when things are added to Google Scholar’s citations of books, articles, etc.3.Try Google Bookswww.books.google.com. There are four types of views (No preview, snippet view, preview, and free Google E-books.) Of these,the “preview”tends to be the most helpful. Full-view books tend to be older than 1923, whereas you can view (and use in your research because it is a scan of the actual book) up to 10% of many current, in-print books if a “preview” view is available.Onthe left side of the screen, click on “Find it in a library” to get citation information for the book you are viewing.Using Google BooksGo to www.books.google.com. Enter a search term, or perhaps a phrase that you have seen that you want to check in a book, or a book title or author. There are four views in Google Books:1.No preview2.Snippet view (not very useful, unless you already own the book. Then it becomes asearchable index to your own book. Look up a particular word and it will show you which pages that word occurs on)3.Preview –this is for books that are still in copyright. It will only show you about 10% of the book. Sometimes portions say “pages 23-27are not part of this preview.” But you can choose which 10% of the book you wanted to see. For instance, if it were a commentary on John, if you started at page 1 and started scrolling, you might only be allowed to see the first chapter or so. But you could use the search box to “search within this book” and search for the phrase “caught in adultery” and go right to chapter 8 and start accumulating your 10% of pages starting in the middle.4.Free Google EBooks –ordinarily these are books in the public domain (government works, etc.) or books on which the copyright has expired (older than 1926). You can download the entire book either as picture (PDF) files, or as editable text. (Since the text is “computer read” with optical character recognition, you might have to clean it up a bit. For instance, the word “barn” might scan as “bam” if the computer doesn’t see the space between the “r” and the “n.”The most helpful books are generally those which have a preview(unless you are looking for older, primary sources which may be available in full-text).For my example, I typed in the word “inerrancy.” Belowis the results list. I clicked on Tools, and instead of “Any books” I clicked on “Preview available” to eliminate those with no preview or just a snippet view.
  6. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 6of 10The first author listed, Norm Geisler, is a conservative evangelical. So I click on the title.When I click on the title, I usually see either the front cover or perhaps a page within the book that contains my search terms. In the lowerleft corner, you can see “Search in this book.” So I can choose a specific term. I am going to look for 2 Timothy 3:16, “all Scripture is inspired by God.” I will put “3:16” in the search box, since I’m not sure how the book chapter will be written or abbreviated (i.e. 2 Tim 3:16, II Timothy 3:16, Timothy, 2nd3:16, etc.)
  7. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 7of 10Searching for 3:16 within just this book yielded this result:Then I will click on a particular page of interest. I can scroll to the pages immediately preceding and following as well. When I have found a page I like,it won’t allow me to save or print it. But I can use the “Snipping Tool” available in Windowsto take a picture of a portion of the screen and save it. To open Snipping Tool,select theStartbuttonin the lower right,typesnipping tool, and then select it in the search results.This will take you to WorldCat to find citation information and to see if the book is in a library nearbyEnter terms here to search within the book. The box will likely contain your original search words.
  8. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 8of 10What a “snip” from the Snipping Tool looks like for an individual pageThe text you save will be in a “picture” format (where each letter is drawn dot by dot) rather than an editable text format. I have not found the optical character recognition in Word to do a great job of converting a picture of text like this to editable text. But I have had good results using Microsoft OneNote which is part of Microsoft Office. You drop your text picture into the desktop version of OneNote, right click on it to “Copy Text From Picture” and it will “read” the words and give you text where you can delete words, etc.Here I show what the pop up box looks like. The “picture” of the page is on the left and the text you can edit is on the right.
  9. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 9of 10How the copied text looks in the Desktop version of Microsoft OneNoteOn the left is the “picture” taken with the Snipping Tool. Right click on the picture and you’ll see the option to “Copy Text from Picture.” On the right, I’ve pasted the text or you can insert into a document.Whatever page number you see is a photographic reproduction of the original book. So if it says page “190”you can cite that as though you had the printed book in your hand. How do you cite the book? On the left hand side of the Google Books screen, you see “Find it in a Library.” That will take you to www.worldcat.org. In the case of this book, Liberty owns it, so if the 10% it allowed you to see was insufficient, you could obtain this book from us. If you put in your zip code, it will show you whether a library near you owns it. It will also give a suggested citation. Often, you have to fix the state abbreviation. It might list “Mich.” and you should use the two letter postal code MI, or “Calif.” for California which should be CA. If it doesn’t say “Find it in a Library” you might need to note the book title and search for it in WorldCat yourself.Sometimes the suggested citation adds a web address or is not complete. You need to include the city, state, and publisher as well as the publication date.
  10. Note: There may be limited functionality for screen reader users for this commenting tool.
    Google Scholar / Google Books Fall 2022Page 10of 10This is what a WorldCat screen looks like for an individual bookWorldCat will tell you the city, state, and publisher. It will show you whether Liberty has the book if you enter the zip code 24502. Or it will show you if the book is available in a library near you.
12

Comments

    • LS
      Laura Scott
      May 23
      Page 1•
      Got it! Thank you!
    • RN
      R A Neal
      May 21
      Page 1•
      I don't see the tinyurl link in this document
    • RN
      R A Neal
      May 21
      Page 1•
      Thanks!
    • CM
      Cass Marie
      Oct 30, 2024
      Page 1•
      Thank you!

    • FO
      Fofo Osibamowo
      Oct 30, 2024
      Page 1•
      High. Was late how do link google - schoolar to the library
    • YL
      Yoli Lantz
      Apr 24, 2022
      Page 1•
      Thank you. Excellent information!
    • MC
      Min Cai
      Aug 31, 2021
      Page 1•
      Hi.
    • AJ
      Angelika Jones
      Mar 31, 2021
      Page 1•
      Thank you!
    • JM
      Jarlanda Moss
      Mar 31, 2021
      Page 1•
      Got it, thanks!
    • CS
      C S
      Mar 31, 2021
      Page 1•
      Got it, thanks!
    • SR
      sandra rr
      Jan 27, 2021
      Page 1•
      Got it, thanks!
    • WW
      Walker Walker
      May 22, 2019
      Page 1•
      TSWalker - This is for your CJUS Studies on conducting research at LU and through Google Books & Scholar
Join the conversation

We use cookies to provide, improve, protect and promote our services. Visit our Privacy Policy and Privacy Policy FAQs to learn more. You can manage your personal preferences, including your ‘Do not sell or share my personal data to third parties’ setting using the “Customize cookies” button below.