Google Scholar & Finding Articles...

Yes, you can find some articles using Google Scholar. It can be a useful site to explore. But in the end, it does not stack up all that well against our library databases, like Academic Search Complete etc. This isn't some ego thing, lol, where we want to be #1, it's just reality. Why? Because in the end information isn't free, despite all the (often good) information floating around on the Internet. Journals, magazines and newspapers all cost subscriptions to receive, and in the case of journals these subscriptions can easily be in the hundreds or ever thousands of dollars per year. They just don't give free access via Google.

So, what to do? Easy, go to our extensive lineup of article databases. Between them these resources offer access to tens of thousands of journals, magazines and newspapers, and their articles. Not sure which is best? Ask one of us for help!

Google Scholar

We have added a link to Google Scholar from our article databases A-Z page. Ordinarily if you go to Google Scholar you don't have to log in, but from our link you do. Why? Because that way you will get more full text :-) Please note that if you click on the green button to the left of the link, you are told this important information about Google Scholar:

Google Scholar does not contain full-text for every article. Also, many times it will ask you to pay for an article. Please remember that you can use our Journals & Newspaper Listing or ask a librarian for help. You should not have to pay for the article, we can obtain it for you.

Google Scholar

We notice people using Google Scholar, and have been asked about its effectiveness. This blog has posted on the topic in the past as well. Like many information sources nowadays, Google Scholar continues to grow and evolve, and we are now taking another look at it. We will be holding a CELT workshop on it this spring, and would really enjoy hearing from you; do you use Google Scholar? Do you also use library article databases like Academic Search? Do you have any preferences? Please do post comments here, or email one of your blogger's colleagues, Charlie Cowling, at ccowling@brockport.edu.

Wouldn't those scholars of yesteryear be amazed by the resources we have today!

Google Scholar

Google has long been THE internet search engine, and for many good reasons. Its Google Scholar site is a fascinating venture into locating the sort of research that both college students and professors rely upon so heavily. Has Google Scholar overtaken resources like Academic Search and similar databases though, in the way Google has long since surpassed HotBot?

At this point we'd have to say the answer is absolutely not! Here is one simple example of where Google Scholar falls short. Let's say you need articles on agoraphobia for some psych research. If you go to Google Scholar, you find links to a number of articles, many of which are not full text, and the most recent are at least 10 years old. If you go to Academic Search though, our big general purpose article database, you find over 300 full text articles, the most recent from September 2008! This isn't even including such databases as PsychArticles and PsychInfo....

Google Scholar

Once in awhile a student or professor asks about Google Scholar, wondering how useful it is and so forth. Maybe the best answer is that it is still early days yet for Google Scholar and that time will tell. (If you don't know what it is, Google Scholar is a Google search site that focuses on articles, books...)

One basic factor here is the availability of the actual articles, the full text, that many of you want to be able to find. There isn't nearly as much of that in Google Scholar as there is in, say, Academic Search. Why not? Because publishers don't care to post their literature in free sites; they much prefer to sell it to libraries!

Another problem with Google Scholar is that it doesn't do some simple and helpful things, like present results with the most recent first. Academic Search and similar databases libraries offer do this sort of thing as a matter of course.

On the other hand, librarians do understand that when people are presented with a long list of resources, without a lot of information as to which to use, people obviously can find navigating their way around frustrating. It isn't helpful either that each site is different from the one before!

So where will it all lead? There are different opinions, but certainly libraries, and Google, are working to make things as simple and user friendly as they can be!