Google Scholar can be great for finding articles, pre-published papers and more, but do check the quality of the sources you've found. By clicking on the " (quote marks) at the end of each retrieved record you can export directly to RefWorks. Go into settings and set the library links to show items held at Solent. You may be better using the advanced search feature, found under Settings.
Searching Google to get the best results is not as straight-forward as you may believe. There are some tips you can use to improve the results. Look through all the results - the top one might not be the best for your research although Google will try to give you the most relevant one first there are many other factors to be taken into account. See Google's help pages.
AND Google assumes you are connecting your terms with AND (so both words must be present) this is common to most databases/eResources. Google does not do Boolean, so do not include the word AND or NOT as you would in searches on other eResources or databases. It does do "OR".
OR if you use OR it must be in capitals (this is good practice for most databases). Connecting with OR means that either word needs to present – useful for synonmyns.
Consider using the Advanced Search function - it will help you get the best results.
Google ranks the first word slightly higher than the second, the second slightly more than the third, etc.
|
Operator |
How to use it |
|
“ “ |
Searches for phrases “social distancing” searches for that exact phrase
|
|
- |
Exclude word from search “social distancing” –children
|
|
Site: |
Use to restrict to top level domain - eg - Note the punctuation.
site:.ac.uk to find UK education sites
Site:.gov.uk to find UK government sites
|
|
* |
Searches for a missing word in a phrase - eg Test * Trace to find Test Track Trace
Note this does not do the same job as an * in other searches where it replaces letters!
|
|
… |
Range search for numbers - use for prices? Ipad 300…399
|
|
Allintext: |
Searches for multiple words in the text
|
|
Intext: |
Searches for a single word in the text or combine with “ “ to find phrase
|
|
Allintitle: |
Searches for multiple words in the title - allintitle: social distancing
|
|
Intitle: |
Searches for single word in title –can use multiple times in the same search - intitle: "social distancing" intitle:children
|
|
Define: |
Gives definitions of words - define:biomechanics |
| Filetype: |
Filetype:pdf will only find documents in this format. filetype:pptx - will find powerpoints with this extension. filetype:ppx - will find powerpoints with this extension |
| Verbatim | Use after a search - looks for all the words you have searched for. Type in your search words, then click Tools, then select Verbatim from the All Results drop down |
| Advanced Search | Don't be afraid of using the advanced search feature - you will get better results, more quickly. Find it under Settings. Choose whether to search for exact phrase, any of the words (equivalent to OR), all of the words (AND). Scroll down to select where your terms should appear in the search, etc. |
Watch the video to learn some additional ways of searching Google Scholar