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Google Scholar Guide: Understanding the Search Results Page

A guide on using Google Scholar to effectively conduct your research.

 

 

 

 

 

     

 


If full text is available, Google Scholar will link to either FDU Journal Holdings, a particular FDU Database, or a website where it is freely available (i.e. the publisher's website). Any source that is not available in full text can be requested as an Interlibrary Loan through the FDU Libraries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The "Cited by" feature shows you how many times this article was cited by others. This is a good indicator for how useful this source has been for other people. i.e. 


If you find an article that is relevant to your information need, you might be interested in looking at similar articles. By choosing the "Related articles" link, you can unlock a new list of search results filled with similar titles. 


If you would like to save the articles you find as you go, you can press the star symbol () beneath each citation. Google Scholar will prompt you to log into your Google Account, and you can access all of your saved articles by clicking "My Library" in the upper right corner of your screen.


The other useful tool that you will find right on the search results page, is the citation tool, represented by quotation marks () beneath each article. Like any other citation tool, it is important to review the citation for errors before using it in your assignment.

Results from a Google Scholar search yield a variety of scholarly sources consisting of journal articles, books, technical reports, legal cases, grey literaturepatents, and pre-prints, among others. The order that your search results are listed in is determined by what Google considers to be the most relevant listing.

Please note: You cannot filter by source type. Google Scholar will also not indicate what type of document it is, so it is the user's responsibility to differentiate among the documents represented in their search results.