Database Tips & Tricks: Google Scholar

So you received a topic for your paper and you don’t know where to start? Google it!
But wait…what if you Google Scholar it instead?

Google Scholar is basically Google but with scholarly sources. How do you get to it?

scholar.google.com – super easy, super simple.

Before you start your search there’s two things you’re going to want to do to make your research easier.

First go into the settings (under this button on the top left), and choose library links. You’re going to search for Duke University and choose the “Duke University Libraries – Get it at Duke and then save. This makes it so that any article found on Google Scholar that Duke has access to you’ll be able to go straight to that article. You’ll know it worked when you search an article and see this in the right column.

Secondly, you’ll want to go back into the savings option and make sure that you’re signed into an account so you’ll be able to save your articles into your library.

Now you’re all set to do your research! But just a few more things to make note of:

The star button will save the article to your library

The quotation button will give you the citation for that article in MLA, APA, etc and also allows you to link to several citation management tools (they’re sometimes slightly incorrect so double check your citation!)

The “Cited By” shows how many people have cited that article via Google Scholar

Advanced search is found under the menu option

And that is it! You are prepared to do Grade A research, friend!

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to a librarian at https://library.duke.edu/research/ask

Or join us in the lobby of Perkins for our 5 Minutes to becoming a Google Scholar Power User on any of these dates:

Nov 6, 2019: 11a – 12p

Nov 12, 2019: 1:30p – 2:30p

Nov 22, 2019: 11a – 12p