Developed in 2004, Google Scholar indexes scholarly material: books, journals, conferences, theses, preprints.

Google Scholar indexes scholarly material and provides information on the number of times the material has been cited.

There is no index of what Google Scholar includes and excludes

Google Scholar may be a good starting place, but it is not comprehensive enough to be the only place to do in-depth research.

Google Scholar is now linked to SU holdings. If you run a Google Scholar search from campus, Google will recognize that you are at SU, and offer a FullText@SU link. You may also set SU as your library for off campus searching in GS Settings - Library Links to get the FullText@SU link when you are off campus.

Check for the full text of articles in Google Scholar Results by searching Primo.

Initiate an interlibrary loan for articles not full text through the library's sources

A few tips for searching in Google Scholar:

• You can really save some time by using the Advanced Search options if you are searching for specific publications, authors, legal or want to restrict the date.

  To access the options, click on the arrow (pull down menu) of the search box. 

  You'll get options to restrict results to specific authors, publications, dates and more.

• Try to only use first initials when searching for author names. Many articles only include the first initial of the author.
• Use the "author:" operator, e.g., author:"d knuth" or author:"donald e knuth". See our Advanced Search Tips for more information
• Abbreviations of journal names are often used, e.g. J Biol Chem rather than Journal of Biological Chemistry.
• To search for a specific paper, put the paper's title in quotations: "A History of the China Sea."
• Keep in mind that Google Scholar gathers bibliographical data from text and citations, (including pre-prints, which may include incomplete information). Often, when searching in Google Scholar less is more.
• Boolean operators (+ or -) are available, but not truncation.
• It is not possible to sort by date. If you want to find recent papers, select the date range from the dropdown menu labeled anytime under the search box. You can also receive newly added search results by email. To sign up for email updates, do a search as usual and click on the envelope icon on the green bar.
• To search for papers in specific publications: Within the Advanced Search page, you can specify keywords which must appear in both the article and the publication name. See the Google Scholar Advanced Search Tips for more information.
• To search by category: From the Advanced Search page, you can search for scholarly literature within several broad areas of research. You can also limit your search to legal opinions and journals.

• Searches are not case sensitive. 
  • Keywords may be entered in lower or upper case or a combination of both. Math, math, MATH  
  • Exception: Boolean operator OR   -  OR must be in caps!
    
    • Find apartments in Cincinnati or Covington       Apartments Cincinnati OR Covington  
    • Pipe symbol may be used instead of OR           Apartments Cincinnati | Covington
  • Boolean operator AND is assumed
    • Find apartments in Cincinnati and Covington    Apartments Cincincinnati Covington

• Word order matters.
  • Google ranks the first word slightly higher than the second, the second slightly more than the third, etc.
    • drilling contract (results are slightly different from the search contract drilling)
• Google ignores most punctuation and symbols. Exceptions:
  • Dollar sign when used to indicate price.
    • canon $400 gives different results than canon 400.
      
  • Underscore or hyphen when used to connect words.
    • right-to-work
    • end_of_file
      
  • Symbols when used to convey meaning such as a programming language (C++).
• Google uses automatic word stemming.
  • Google does not allow wildcards to be used for variable ends of words.
    
  • Instead, Google searches for all possible word forms
    

Keep it simple! Start by typing the name of a thing, place, or concept that you're looking for.
   
    puppy training tips
    london dinner cruise
    pasta recipe

Add relevant words if you don't see what you want after doing a simple search.
   
    First try: puppy
    More precise: puppy training
    Even more precise: dalmatian puppy training class

Don't worry if it takes several attempts to find the right words to describe your search.

Try words that a website would use to describe what you're looking for.
   
    Not ideal: my head hurts
    Not ideal: why is my head killing me
    Better: headache

Why? Google matches the words in your search to the words appearing in pages on the Internet. "Headache" is the term that informative webpages are likely to use, so using that term will help you reach the type of information you want.

Use only the important words rather than a full sentence or question.

    Not ideal: country where bats are an omen of good luck
    Better: bats good luck

Why? Generally, all of the words that you include in your search will be used to find matching content. Too many words will limit your results.

Let Google do the work! Certain types of searches will show you special information directly below the search box.
   
    Weather: weather edinburgh
    Calculations: 45 x .88

Exceptions

Sometimes Google search will act differently than what's described above if doing so could improve your search. Here are a few of these cases:

• Common words like "the," "a," and "for," are usually ignored, but might not be if they're integral to your search phrase. For example, the word "the" differentiates a search for the who (likely referring to the band) and who (likely referring to the World Health Organization).
• A webpage could appear in your results even if it doesn't contain all of the words from your search. For example, the query overhead view of the bellagio pool will give you nice overhead pictures from webpages that do not include the word "overhead."
• Synonyms might replace some words in your original query, but you can put a word or phrase in quotes to prevent this from happening.
• Generally, most punctuation and special characters are ignored, however there is a growing list of punctuation and symbols that are recognized in searches

Specific site: Locate information from a specific site or certain type of site, use the command "site:"
      Example: italian language site:www.naz.edu 

                        health insurance site:.gov 

                        uninsured site:.edu        

Explicit phrase: Enclose the search phrase within quotation marks
      Example: "attention deficit disorder in children 2009"

Exclude words: Use the "-" in front of the specific word (no space between - and the excluded word!)
      Example: attention deficit disorder -adults 2009

Similar words: Use the "~" in front of the specific word (no space between - and the excluded word!)
      Example: internet ~job market

This OR that: Use the word OR (must be in caps!) between two keywords
      Example: job opportunities OR job market

Word definition: To find a word definition simply use the "define:" command
      Example: define:pauperism

Numeric ranges: Use a keyword followed by range of numbers
      Example: autism cases 1995..2007

Find words in the title of the website: Use the command "intitle:"
      Example: intitle:spanish influenza pandemic