Google Scholar – How To Use Google Scholar Database In Academic Research

Google Scholar – How To Use Google Scholar Database In Academic Research

What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is a web search engine that indexes scholarly literature across many fields of study, including articles, theses, books, conference papers, and preprints. Google runs it and allows you to easily search for academic and scholarly research material.

Google Scholar indexes scholarly materials from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites. Users can use Google Scholar to conduct free searches and access full-text articles if they are available online.

Google Scholar also offers citation data, which can be used to evaluate the impact and influence of academic publications.

What is Google Scholar used for?

As fore mentioned in the previous section of this article, Google Scholar is an essential research tool which ought to be used by students and researchers to conduct proper academic research. This is owing to its core uses, the bulk of which includes;

• Research:

  Google Scholar is a useful research tool because it gives you access to various academic literature, including peer-reviewed articles. Peer-reviewed articles are essential for conducting scholarly research because they have been subjected to a rigorous review process by subject matter experts to ensure the accuracy and quality of the information presented.

• Literature Review:

  A literature review is an important step in research because it allows researchers to understand current knowledge on a specific topic. Google Scholar is an excellent resource for conducting a literature review because it gives you access to a vast amount of academic literature.

• Finding relevant articles:

  Google Scholar is a web search tool created especially for scholarly study. It indexes academic literature from many places, such as preprint archives, professional groups, and academic publishers.

  This makes it a useful tool for scholars who want to uncover pertinent literature for their research projects, stay current on advancements in their field, and find new collaborators.

• Citations and citation analysis:

  Citation analysis is a crucial component of research since it enables investigators to gauge the significance of their findings and locate other academics working on related issues. Users can track the citations of their work and see who has cited it using Google Scholar’s robust citation analysis tool.

  In addition, Google Scholar makes it easier for scholars to cite resources properly and in diverse citation styles.

• Evaluation of Research Impact:

  Academic research must consider the scope and relevance of its findings and how it compares to the work of other scholars in the field. This is done through the evaluation of research impact. Several measures, including h-index and i10-index, are available in Google Scholar and can be used to assess the effect of research.

• Access to full-text articles:

  Using Google Scholar’s search engine, users can read articles and papers from various sources, including scholarly journals, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, and books. Similarly, researchers can more easily locate pertinent publications by filtering the search results according to publication date, author, and other factors.

  This is very beneficial for researchers who might not have access to academic libraries or subscriptions.

How to use Google Scholar for Academic Research.

The step-by-step procedure on how Google Scholar can be used for Academic Research is as follows:

• Step 1: Head to the Google Scholar Website:

When you are ready for an academic research and, you wish to use the Google Scholar Software to carry it out, the first step will be to head to the Google scholar website. The website in question is https://www.scholar.google.com. The link will direct you to the homepage of the web tool.

Directly under the big search box, there are two research options namely ‘article’ and ‘case studies’. If you are trying to conduct pure research on diverse matters that are not necessarily related to law or legal research, stick to the ‘articles’ option. If you are interested in case studies, click the second option.

However, it is vital to note that the cases in this section are mainly American, it does not consist of case studies from other countries.

• Step 2: Enter your Search Query:

Following your visit to the Google Scholar website, the next step in conducting academic research is to type your search query into the search box. It is critical to use specific and relevant keywords that accurately describe your research topic in order to achieve the best results.

You can also use quotation marks to look up specific phrases or words. For example, if you’re looking into the effects of social media on mental health, you could type “social media” and “mental health” into the search box. Furthermore, brainstorming and coming up with multiple keywords related to your topic can help you find a wider range of relevant research articles.

• Step 3: Refine your Search Results:

After entering your search query, the Google Scholar website will most likely display a long list of search results. It is critical to refine your search results in order to find the most relevant articles for your research topic. One way to accomplish this is to use the filters on the left side of the page.

You can narrow down your search results using filters such as publication date, author, journal, and more. For instance, if you only want to see articles published in the last five years, you can use the publication date filter to narrow down your search results.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for articles written by a specific author or published in a specific journal, you can also use those filters. Refining your search results in this way can help you find the most relevant and up-to-date research articles for your topic.

• Step 4: Review the Abstract:

After you have narrowed down your search results to include only the most relevant articles for your research topic, go over the abstracts of those articles. The abstract concisely overviews the article’s content, research methods, and findings.

You can quickly determine whether the article is relevant to your research question and whether it will be a valuable source for your research project by reading the abstract. When reading the abstracts, keep in mind the main points of the article and how they relate to your research question. Look for any limitations or potential biases in the methodology or findings of the study.

This information can assist you in determining the article’s quality and relevance. However, it is important to remember that the abstract is only a synopsis of the article’s content. You must read the entire article to fully comprehend the research and its implications for your research question.

On the other hand, reviewing the abstracts can be a useful first step in identifying the most relevant and useful research articles for your project.

• Step 5: Access full-text articles:

The next step is to access the full-text articles after reviewing the abstracts and identifying the most relevant articles for your research. If the article is free to read, you can usually get to it by clicking on the title or “Full Text” link in the search results. This will take you to the article’s full text, which you can read online or download for future reference.

However, not all articles are free to read. In many cases, you may be required to pay a fee in order to access the full text of the article, especially if it was published in a prestigious academic journal.

• Step 6: Review Related Articles:

After reading the full-text articles relevant to your research topic, go over the “Related articles” section. This section, which is usually near the bottom of the page, provides a list of other articles similar to the one you found. Reviewing related articles can be beneficial for a variety of reasons.

For starters, it can aid in identifying additional sources of information that may be relevant to your research question. Second, it can assist you in identifying other researchers working in your field who may be conducting similar research to you. This can be beneficial for networking or identifying potential collaborators for future research projects.

• Step 7: Save and Organize your Search Results:

Saving and organizing your search results can help you keep track of the articles and sources you’ve found and easily access them in the future. Google Scholar’s “My Library” feature allows you to save and organize your search results. Simply click the “Save” button located below the article’s information to save it to your library.

You will be prompted to create a library if you have not already done so. After you have set up your library, you can move the article to a specific folder or create a new one to organize your saved articles.

• Step 8: Cite your resources:

Citing your sources is an important part of academic research because it acknowledges the work of the original author, gives credit where credit is due, and helps to avoid plagiarism. By including a “Cite” button under each search result, Google Scholar makes it simple to generate citations for the articles you find.

To cite an article in Google Scholar, click the “Cite” button under the article’s information and choose the citation style. Google Scholar offers citations in a number of styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard.