Google Scholar (beta or test version)

Google Scholar searches a range of scholarly and other literature, including journal articles, conference papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. How can I access Google Scholar?

Go to Google at www.google.com, click on More then locate Google Scholar or go directly to http://scholar.google.com.
If you are off campus then use this link Google Scholar. It will prompt you for your Internet login and password.
This will enable you to access items held in our subscription databases.
Undertake your search and then examine the results. Those that are hyperlinked may take you directly to the document. If CDU Library has the item you may be redirected to it.
Always use the E-Journal portal and the library catalogue to search by title for journals that do not link to the full-text through Google Scholar. At present, there are many more resources in the Library’s collections, databases and e-journals than are currently accessible through Google Scholar.
As of September 2007 CDU's electronic resources are now linked to the Google Scholar database so what this means for our clients is that when they search on campus using Google Scholar, their results may show that FullText@CDU exists or if not,they may see a link to "Find It at CDU"
If you search via this link off campus http://ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/login?url=http://scholar.google.com
(as you can see from the url, you will need to authenticate with your user name and password), then you can also be prompted with links to the fulltext.
At home or in your office you should go to Google Scholar preferences, and in the box Library links type in Charles Darwin and when the box appears select it and save preferences .

How good is Google Scholar?

As with any indexing service, you should be aware of both its strengths and weaknesses. Here are some key points:

Strengths of Google Scholar:

The search interface is straightforward, including an Advanced Search option
Search results may include links to full-text articles freely available on the Internet. Many links take you to publishers' websites where access requires a subscriber login or payment. The good news is that many of these will be available to you through our Library databases so you need to check the library catalogue
Google Scholar may offer a number of versions of the same article depending on where it was found (the publisher website, the author's website, a pre-print service, etc.) However, always use either the E-Journal portal or the library catalogue to search by title for journals that do not link to the full-text through Google Scholar or where you are uncertain which version of an article to use.
Google Scholar can be used to locate citations of particular authors’ works as an alternative or working in parallel with other citation databases eg. Web of Science
It can be used to give a quick overview and also to indicate likely publishers to search in the databases.

Weaknesses of Google Scholar:

It is still in beta (or test) version, meaning that there are still many bugs or errors
Coverage is predominantly medical, scientific and technical. It is not the best source for social science or humanities topics or Australian material.
Google provides no information about which publishers or sites are searched, the extent of the material included and the frequency of updating, while the criteria for identifying an article or site as “scholarly” are still fuzzy
There are many errors in the indexing, e.g. authors identified as D Analysis or D Statistics…

Things to remember:

Google Scholar will not provide all the material you need, there is much more scholarly material available to you as a CDU student or staff member.
Relying on just one source is not usually the best search strategy. If you are serious about your research, you will want to search across all the relevant databases, varying your search strategy and taking advantage of the specialized indexing that databases can offer.
To get the best results, use Library databases which have been carefully selected to provide comprehensive, retrospective and up-to-date access to scholarly literature.
If you need help:

Use the Subject Guides to find out which databases are most relevant to your topic.
Seek advice about the best resources by talking to your Liaison Librarian.

Google Scholar Tutorials

The following tutorials use Flash movies to demonstrate some hints on making the best use of Google Scholar. (Thanks to the Library staff at UTS for permitting links to these resources) . Please note that these make reference to the Library at UTS, return to the CDU library pages if needed!

Comparing Google Scholar with Google (970 kb)
Using Google Scholar to make citation searches (843 kb)
Using Google Scholar to search for works by a specific author (606 kb)

To sum up:

Google Scholar can be a useful place to start, but you can rely on the Library’s databases as your best source providing extensive coverage of scholarly information.

Thanks to staff of RMIT and University of Technology Libraries for permission to adapt portions of their pages in the creation of this page.