Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches across disciplines and may find:

• journal and conference papers
• theses and dissertations
• academic books
• preprints
• abstracts
• technical reports
• material held in university and subject repositories
• other scholarly material available through publishers and academic websites

Its results can include both subscription publications and openly available material. Some results are citation records only, which means that Google Scholar has identified references to a publication but has not found a copy online.

Not everything included in Google Scholar has been peer reviewed, and appearing in its results does not show that a source is reliable or suitable for your assessment.

Scholar Labs is an experimental AI-powered way to search Google Scholar. Access requires a Google account and availability may vary.

You can enter a detailed research question rather than constructing a conventional keyword search. Scholar Labs:

• analyses the topics, aspects and relationships within your question
• runs searches across Google Scholar
• evaluates the results to identify papers it considers relevant
• generates a brief explanation of how each selected paper relates to your question
• allows you to ask follow-up questions

Scholar Labs is best understood as AI-supported academic discovery. Google’s description focuses on finding relevant papers and explaining their relationship to the question, rather than producing a definitive synthesis of the literature.

The generated explanations still need to be checked. Scholar Labs may:

• miss relevant papers
• select papers that reflect only part of the question
• misunderstand or oversimplify a paper
• make a paper appear more relevant than it is
• omit conflicting evidence or perspectives

Open and read each original paper before using it. Check that the paper exists, that it is suitable for your work and that it supports the explanation Scholar Labs has generated.

Scholar Labs is an external and experimental service, not an Abertay-supported AI tool. Follow your assessment brief and do not enter confidential, sensitive or unpublished information.

For more guidance, see:

• AI for researching a topic
• Evaluating AI outputs
• Generative AI research assistants

LibrarySearch is not simply the Library catalogue. It searches Abertay’s books and e-books alongside a large collection of journal articles, conference papers, theses and openly available research. It also connects results to Abertay access and provides filters designed for academic searching.

Google Scholar searches scholarly material from publishers, repositories, universities and other websites. It may identify material or versions of papers that do not appear in LibrarySearch, but its coverage, filters and ranking work differently.

In practice:

• use your reading list when the assessment is based mainly on set material
• use LibrarySearch to find books and articles across Abertay’s collections and a substantial range of open-access research
• use Google Scholar when its particular strengths, such as citation searching or finding repository copies, are useful
• use specialist databases when you need subject-specific coverage, search fields or a structured and reproducible search

You do not have to search every tool for every assessment. The amount of independent searching expected will depend on your assessment brief, level of study and subject.

Google Scholar may be particularly useful when you want to:

• find a paper when you know its title or author
• see which later publications have cited a paper
• identify related papers
• find a repository, preprint or other openly available version
• explore research associated with a particular author
• search across several disciplines
• set an alert for new material on a topic
• supplement searches conducted in LibrarySearch or specialist databases

For an extended literature review, dissertation or research project, you will normally need a planned search using more than one appropriate source. Google Scholar may form part of that process, but should not usually be the only search tool used.

You can search Google Scholar using topic words, an author’s name or details from a particular publication.

Useful options include:

• put quotation marks around a title or exact phrase, for example "digital game-based learning"
• use OR in capital letters to search for alternatives, for example adolescent OR teenager
• use author: to search for a particular author, for example author:"Jane Smith"
• use the year options to limit results or sort newer material by date
• use Advanced search to search particular fields, including author, title and publication

Google Scholar normally ranks results by relevance rather than date. Its ranking can consider the text, author, place of publication and how often and recently a work has been cited.

Once you find a useful paper:

• select Cited by to find newer publications that have cited it
• check its reference list to find earlier research
• select Related articles to find similar material
• select All versions to look for other records or accessible copies

A citation shows that one publication has referred to another. It does not show by itself whether the later author supports, challenges or simply mentions the earlier work.

See Citation chaining for help following references backwards and forwards.

You can configure Google Scholar to display View It @ Abertay links:

1. Go to Google Scholar.
2. Open the menu and select Settings.
3. Select Library links.
4. Search for Abertay.
5. Select View It @ Abertay.
6. Save your settings.

When a matching record is available, select View It @ Abertay to check for access through the Library.

Google Scholar may also display PDF or HTML links beside a result. These can lead to openly available copies from repositories, publishers or other websites. Select All versions if you want to check for alternative copies.

Finding a record does not guarantee access to the full text. If you cannot open a publication:

• search for its title in LibrarySearch
• use LibKey Nomad to check for Abertay or open-access copies
• follow the guidance on accessing full-text journal articles

Select Save beneath a result to add it to your personal Google Scholar library.

To export a reference:

1. Select Cite beneath the result.
2. Choose RefWorks from the options.

Always check the imported reference against the original publication. Google Scholar creates records automatically, so author names, titles, dates and other details may be incomplete or incorrect.

Google Scholar has broad coverage, but it does not provide a complete or fully transparent record of everything it searches. Coverage of a particular publisher, repository or type of material can change.

Other limitations include:

• not everything in the results is peer reviewed
• search and filtering options are less controlled than those in many specialist databases
• only the first 1,000 results from a search can be viewed
• different versions of the same work may be grouped incorrectly or appear separately
• publication details and citation counts can contain errors
• highly cited and older publications may be prominent, but prominence does not establish quality or relevance
• recent publications may have few citations even when they are important
• results may include preprints or earlier versions that differ from the final published paper

Google Scholar is useful for discovery and citation chaining, but it is difficult to use as the sole basis for a comprehensive or reproducible search. Follow the method required by your programme, supervisor or review protocol.

Whatever search tool you use, evaluate the original source rather than judging it from its position in the results. See Evaluate information for further guidance.