Google Scholar Search

With some helpful tips, Google Scholar lets you to make searches, create email alerts, citation export, and more.


Find Recent Papers


At Google Scholar, search results are sorted generally by relevance not by the date. If you want to find newer articles, you try out the options like since year, sort by date, and envelope icon. Using since year, you can view recently published papers which are sorted by relevance. Through sort by date, you can view new additions that are sorted by date.

Search on Google Scholar


How to Locate Full-Text of an Article


There are a few things to try for accessing full-text of an article when you're searching a specific article. You can click a library link like FindIt@Harvard which is available to the right side of the web page. You can also choose a link which is labelled as PDF under search results. All versions option can be helpful to check out for alternative sources.

Similarly, related articles or cited by options under search results may give you a chance to explore more articles. If you're unable to view the articles even though you're affiliated with the university, you make sure that check your local library to access the online subscriptions. You might need to do search from a computer or configure the web browser using local proxy.


How to Get Better Search Results


If you're not having good knowledge to the subject, you may search for terminology from secondary sources. You can check out the references section if your search results are too specific. In alternative to this, if your search results are too basic, you can use cited by option which allows you to find newer papers. The newer papers are often be more specific. You can choose either related articles or cited by to view closely related work or search for author's name or else you can see what else they have written.

Cited By Feature in Google Scholar


In order to get better search results, you can use cited by feature or link to find articles and books. It facilitates a great way to find more recent articles and you can trace an idea from original source. You can initiate your search by locating a single item in Google Scholar. After that, you can look for cited by number which is available at the bottom of the page. You can click cited by feature to view all of the items that cite your original item. It will have a higher number of cited by results. You can restrict the cited by results by searching for keywords or limit the date range.


Advanced Search Options


To do more complex searches, you can try out the Google Scholar's advanced search options. It is located on the right hand side of the search box. These options allow you to search the articles more accurately. If you want to limit the results, you can consider either authored by or articles dated between to explore more search options.