We know about search engines and how they impact our search results. If your searches are academically driven, you can now use Google Scholar. Let us find out more about this in the paragraphs.
1. What is Google Scholar?
GS or Google Scholar is an academic search engine. You can consider it as a version of Google that helps you with queries related to academic material. It is a free tool. When you carry out a Google Scholar search, it will provide information to you in the following-
- Scholarly websites
- Universities
- Publishers
The sources from which information is gathered are reliable and authentic. In other words, GS is a subset of the main Google search engine. The process occurs automatically.
Since Google is less aware of the information it includes in the search results, it is up to you to find out how credible the resources and sources are.
2. Is Google Scholar better than Google?
When it comes to getting research papers, is Google Scholar search better than Google? Let us find out more about the same.
With the help of Google Scholar, you will be able to do the following-
- You can copy a well formatted citation. You can do so in various styles, including APA and MLA.
- You can export bibliographic data for use as reference management software.
- Get hold of full-text versions of any article
- Explore other cited works that are listed.
However, an important aspect that you must keep in mind is that although Google Scholar is a free tool, but the articles or the citation work you come across may not be free. You might have to sign up, or it is a paid service.
3. How is the SERP on Google Scholar?
You will find a few differences between the SERP of Google and that of GS. Let us know how.
- The first line of the GS SERP will contain information like the document’s title, whether it is a report, article, book, or chapter.
- The next or the second line will provide bibliographic information related to the document in the following order-
- The author
- The book or the journal in which it appears
- Year of publication
- Name of the publisher
If you click on the title link, it will take you to the publisher’s page, where you can access more information.
4. Is there any guideline for searching on GS?
Google Scholar does the number of searches to 1000 maximum. The searches on GS are not case-sensitive. If you want an exact match, search with quotes. If you want articles that belong to a particular year, type in the year for specific results. Using the Boolean operator for searches gives you better results.
