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Google Scholar

A short guide to effectively utilizing this more scholarly research tool from Google.

What Is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is sort of like Google's version of our research databases in that it indexes scholarly content, making it easier to pick out than if you did a normal Google Search.

On the other hand, many results found through Google Scholar aren't available to read for free. (Fortunately, you can request paywalled articles from the library for free!)

  Google Scholar Google
# of results 896,000 results (fewer) 161,000,000 results (lots)
What kind of results Scholarly articles written by experts and formally published by mostly reputable entities "Popular" articles from regular websites - news, blogs, magazines, etc with all degrees of credibility (or lack thereof)
Can you read it? Full-text may or may not be available; odds are good you'll run into paywalls Full-text of web articles generally available

 

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