Google Scholar | How to use it ? Master the tool in 3 steps

As a powerful company that maintains its focus on its users’ needs, Google always promotes its services as responses to those wishes. That is why in 2004, they presented Google Scholar, a tool that has managed to capture the public who wants to find much more than news and information on social networks. Do you know how it works and how to use Google Scholar? In this article, we explain it to you.

Table of Contents

What is Google Scholar?

It is one of the Google services that facilitates searching for information, assessing its integrity without losing the leading search engine’s ease. It works as a metasearch engine, where it is possible to access different types of academic and scientific content with consulted sources, such as :

Thesis.
Summaries
Scientific reports.
Books.
Documentaries
Magazine articles.
Presentations.

For this reason, it has become an excellent research tool for students and scientists. Let us remember that thanks to the internet, the search for information in libraries is no longer relevant due to the ease of being able to do it from home via mobile. Being the greatest attraction of said product, which is very similar to its leading search engine, guarantees that the information does not lack content and coherence.

That’s why more and more people are interested in enjoying this product. Hence the interest in learning and knowing how to use Google Scholar.

What is Google Scholar for, and how does it work?

We all know how beneficial it is to use the internet because you can access the information you request in a few seconds. Regardless of the topic, it is easy to find a publication in blogs, notes, news, or related references, which help us expand our knowledge. However, with a great, easily accessible tool, several risks also exist.

The use of the internet in an inappropriate way has generated significant consequences for users. From addiction to social networks, you are a victim of cyberattacks becoming a distraction for users. Regarding the last point, Google Scholar is a metasearch engine, which serves as a solution to this problem.

How to use academic google offers a comfortable and practical experience from the beginning. It should be noted that the important difference in it is that the information shown comes from specific websites. Those that by mutual agreement allow the search engine to access the data and offer them as the results with the highest coincidence. Among its sources are:

Academic websites.
Magazine portals.
Commercial publishers.
Scientific societies.
Other Google products.

Google Scholar is a easily open web search engine that indexes scholarly works across an group of publishing formats and scholarly fields. It’s a great tool for researchers, students, and anyone looking for in-depth information on a particular topic.

Important Features of Google Scholar:

Broad Coverage: Google Scholar encompasses a vast range of scholarly materials, including peer-reviewed articles, books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, technical reports, and more.
Interdisciplinary Search: Unlike traditional search engines, Google Scholar allows for interdisciplinary searches, enabling users to explore connections across various fields of study.
Citation Tracking: Google Scholar provides citation tracking features, allowing users to identify how often a particular work has been cited by other researchers.
Full-Text Access: While not all articles are directly accessible through Google Scholar, it often provides links to full-text versions available through subscribing libraries or open-access repositories.

Benefits of Using Google Scholar:

Comprehensive Search Results: Google Scholar’s extensive coverage and sophisticated search algorithms help users locate relevant and authoritative sources.
Citation Metrics: Citation tracking features enable users to assess the impact and significance of scholarly works.
Access to Scholarly Networks: Google Scholar profiles allow researchers to connect with colleagues, showcase their work, and track their research impact.
Free and Open Access: Google Scholar is freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection, democratizing access to scholarly information.

How to use Google Scholar and use it to the fullest?

If you have been interested in what you have read before and want to try this search engine, we will explain the step by step below:

1. You must first access the following site: https://scholar.google.com/. It is the correct way to enter Google Scholar.

2. Now to carry out the research, you can continue as with your usual search engine and write the topic or interests you.

It is important to note that you can carry out an advanced search if you want to be more specific.
Click the drop-down menu on the upper left side and select “advanced search.” In this way, you can filter based on words, the exact phrase to use, establish a specific newspaper or author, and more.

3. Once your search, the results are returned, although they are similar to the standard Google interface, it has other additional aspects. Each product tells you the following:

Type: citation, bibliographic reference, book, PDF, HTML.
The times that publication has been cited.
The version: complete, summary, or review.

Additional browser options

Within this tool, you also have different beneficial options to make your research more comfortable, among which are:

“Save” and “My Library”:

You can find a star under each search, being the option to “Save.” In this way, those articles of your interest will be saved in your library, in the drop-down menu on the upper left side. This way, you will be able to consult the site again without doing a new search. Even if you account for this service, you can also find those articles they have written.

If you want to cite a publication, below the result in the quotation mark icon, you will know how to do it correctly. Now, if you are interest in publishing your articles, in the menu by selecting “My Citations,” you will know who has cited your publication in the menu by selecting ” My Citations. To do this, you must create an account and upload the articles, which will then be reviewed and approved by the platform.

Alerts:

To stay up-to-date with the latest published on a topic, you can use the alerts to get it. You only have to indicate the keyword since the email you want these notifications to reach you.

Statistics:

It is an exciting option to know the topics of interest, positioning, and the number of searches they regularly have. Something that goes far beyond how to use Google Scholar regularly but greatly benefits chasing trends.

How to use Google Scholar? Master the tool in 3 steps