Google: Finding Scholarly Information on the Web

Basic Google Searching http://www.google.com

Do not need to type AND between multiple words.

In general capitalization is ignored (other than when using the boolean operator OR)

Use quotations when you are searching for an exact phrase:

"to be or not to be" (try searching it without the quotations to see the difference in results)
"one small step for man"

Use capital OR for combining synonyms, multiple words, and multiple phrases. OR searches for pages that include either word. You can also use the pipe character | for OR.

dogs OR puppies OR puppy OR doggies
dogs|puppies|puppy|doggies
London OR Paris
London|Paris
"global warming" OR "greenhouse effect"
"global warming"|"greenhouse effect"

Always apply the hypen - to search any word that may be hyphenated:

semi-annual will retrieve semi-annual, semi annual, and semiannual
left-handed will retrieve left-handed, left handed, and lefthanded

Apostrophes are not ignored

Peoples, People's and Peoples' are searched as different words

Use the tilda ~ to search for a word and its synonyms. Google will 'think' of words with similar meaning

~fact retrieves information, statistics, trivia, data,
~help retrieves guide, tutorial, FAQ, manual, support, tips

Number Range: 2000…2006 retrieves information from 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

Search "heart attack" 2000...2003

Define:literature review this will display web definitions for the phrase "literature review"

The * is a wildcard and is used as a placeholder for a single word. This means wherever there is an asterisk, the search will accept any word.

By entering a term that Google recognizes as a health/medical term (i.e. heart attack) it will display the results with the option of refining your search to one of the following:

• Treatment
• Symptoms
• Tests/Diagnosis
• Causes/Risk Factors
• For Patients
• For Health Professionals
• From Medical Authorities
• Alternative Medicine

Search Results

Google will display the most popular sites first which is based on the number of links to that specific page, traffic to the that site, and quality of links
Higher priority is given to pages with search terms that are found in the same order as you typed them in the search box and if the words are in close proximity to each other.
Sorted in Order of Relevance

Google Advanced Search http://www.google.com/advanced_search

With Advanced Search, you can search only for pages:

• that contain ALL the search terms you type in
• that contain the exact phrase you type in
• that contain at least one of the words you type in
• that do NOT contain any of the words you type in
• written in a certain language
• created in a certain file format
• that have been updated within a certain period of time
• that contain numbers within a certain range
• within a certain domain, or website
• that don't contain "adult" material

Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/

Google Scholar Strengths

Coverage of science and medical databases, open access databases, and single publisher databases.
Provides free access to millions of article citations and abstracts
Connects results with online resources from HS/HSL
Great tool if you do not have access to licensed subject databases
Google Scholar is good for either very specific search or board searches as a starting point

Google Scholar Weaknesses

Still in Beta so there are frequent changes
Google does not publish information on the frequency of updates
Results display older articles first rather than newer articles
Includes a number of non-scholarly items
Lacks search mechanisms such as truncation and proximity searching
Content varies drastically from discipline to discipline
Mostly English language publication
Is useful, but not as a sole research resource. Use in conjunction with library databases

Google Scholar Preferences http://scholar.google.com/scholar_preferences

This is where you can set up your results to display the Find it @ HS/HSL Link

Google Scholar Advanced Search http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search

Open Worldcat http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/

By typing in "Find in a library" APA Style, Google will list the relevant books it finds and will allow you to click into the record to determine what libraries own the book or you can go directly to http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/ to do a search

Google Book Search http://books.google.com/

U.S. Government Search http://www.google.com/ig/usgov

Search for Housing

Search for Medicare

Google News Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts

Try setting up an alert for stem cell research

Further Tutorials and Handouts

Google Guide: Making Searching Even Easier. An interactive online tutorial http://www.googleguide.com/

Google Tutor’s Google Search Manual http://www.googletutor.com/google-manual/

Handouts for: Google Search Tips, Google Web Search, Google Book Search, Google Scholar, Google Quiz, and Google Earth http://www.google.com/librariancenter/librarian_tools.html

Suggested Reading:

Brophy, J. & Bawden, D. (2005). Is google enough? Comparison of an internet search engine with academic library resoures. Aslib Proceedings: New Information. 57, 498-512.

Jasco, P. (2005).Google scholar: The pros and the cons. Online Information Review. 29, 208-214.

Henderson, J. (2005).Google scholar: A source for clinicians?. CMAJ. 172, 1549-1550.

Neuhaus, C., Neuhaus, E., Asher, A., & Wrede, C. (2006). The depth and breadth of google scholar: An empirical study. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 6, 127 141.

Steinbrook, Robert (2006).Searching for the right search: Reaching the medical literature. New England Journal of Medicine. 354, 4-7.