SW 450-550 Research & Evaluation: Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an excellent resource, especially for its familiar and intuitive interface. However, users should be aware of some differences between Google Scholar and disciplinary scholarly databases. Google Scholar searches across academic publisher websites, .edu sites, .gov sites and more. The search then is much broader than a database that focuses on a specific discipline.

Google Scholar does have an advanced search feature, but it lacks some other features. For example, it does not have a way of limiting the search to the particular methdology employed by the researcher.

Google Scholar is very useful for cited reference searching though because it's scope is larger. It can find cited references in book chapters and reports. 

In order to connect your Google Scholar search results to our PSU Library full text holdings either:

• Use links to Google Scholar from our library pages
• Go to Google Scholar Preferences and select for Portland State University Library under "Library Links". Remember to click Save!

You will see "Find It @ PSU" links to the right of Google Scholar article results for articles we have immediate access to. If there is not a link, please search for the article in the Library catalog and make a request from within the record.