Google Scholar

Content & Features

Google Scholar includes references across many disciplines to “journal and conference papers, theses and dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports and other scholarly literature.” (See Content Coverage for details.) If the scholarship is open access or in the public domain, you will likely see access links to the full text. In many instances though, you will just see the abstract as the full text to references is not freely available, it is behind a paywall. The good news is you can connect Google Scholar with Mansfield Library, and will then see access links to the full text of materials in the subscription resources the library maintains to support your research, additionally, open access publishing is increasing. Some key features, also available in library databases, include: Cited by data, Search within citing articles, Create alerts, and Cite/Export data to bibliographic management tools (e.g., RefWorks).

Algorithm

Researchers have attempted to reverse-engineer the proprietary algorithm to understand how results are ranked. Beel and Gipp (2009) concluded: “Google Scholar seems to be more suitable for searching standard literature than for gems or articles by authors advancing a view different from the mainstream. However, interesting exceptions for some search queries occurred. In some cases no correlation existed; in others bizarre patterns were recognizable, suggesting that citation counts sometimes have no impact at all on articles' rankings."

Recommendation

If you use Google Scholar, we recommend doing so in conjunction with OneSearch discovery system or interdisciplinary or discipline-specific databases available through the Mansfield Library. View all library databases or consult research guides for recommendations on subject-specific resources.

When you are on campus and logged into the Eduroam wifi network, Google Scholar will recognize your device as connected to UM and provide access links to UM library subscription resources that appear in Scholar search results.

When you are off campus and unable to use the Eduroam network, you need to set up the connection to UM through the following steps:

• Step 1 Go to Google Scholar.
• Step 2 Expand the upper left-hand menu and click "Settings".
• Step 3 Select "Library links" from the menu options.
• Step 4 Search for "University of Montana," check the box next to "University of Montana-Missoula - Link to Article @ UM" from the search results list, then click "Save" in the lower right side of the page.

The browser extensions and plugin highlighted below aim to connect you quickly with legal full text PDFs that result from Google Scholar and other web searches.