Google Scholar – Complete Guide 2020

When you're doing a TCC or simply need reliable information about a topic, many turn to Google. However, he has a specialized tool for this, Google Scholar, and here we will teach you how to find the best articles there!

Read our guide to learn everything about the platform, how to use it and how to find exactly what you are looking for.

If you need to know more about a topic and want more technical information, if you are doing a TCC and want references or for several other purposes, using Google Scholar may really be the best option.

Check out our complete guide and find out everything you have to know about it, as well as how to use it!

1. What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is a completely free search service offered by Google. It indexes entire texts and metadata from academic literature that comes from the most varied newspapers, in many formats and on any discipline.

It was launched in 2004 in beta and, in the 16 years since then, it has become an extremely good and complete service through which it is possible to find scientific articles, books, theses, abstracts, dissertations, pre-publication libraries and much more. more.

There is no official number about the size of the Google Scholar database, but researchers estimate that it has around 389 million documents, articles, citations and patents, making it the largest academic research service in the world.

The only thing really criticized about him is the lack of a really effective verification process for the newspapers that appear in the results, which ends up resulting in the possibility of finding unreliable or even predatory sources.

Functionalities

In addition to being able to find the best articles on Google Scholar, it is possible to use one of several other functions offered by him for several other purposes.

• Find academic information in any desired language, from any country in one place;
• Explore works related to what you're reading, quotes, authors and publications;
• Have easy access to complete documents through your virtual library;
• Receive frequent updates on the latest news from research areas you are interested in;
• Find out who is citing your publications through their public profile;
• See the ranked documents just as they would have been if they had been ordered by researchers, with the best sources always at the top;
• Have your own virtual library where you can store and find articles that interest you almost like a Google Drive for academic literature.

2. How to find the best articles on Google Scholar?

Having this prior knowledge of Google Scholar and knowing why it is really worth using it, we will teach you how to use it to find the best result for your search.

How to use?

The first step in knowing how to use Google Scholar is to go to the official website of the platform through the link in any of the best internet browsers, either on your computer or on your Android smartphone and on your iPhone.

You will come across a very familiar interface, similar to the Google search homepage. To search, it is only necessary that you enter the desired term. With that, you will receive all the results that Google can find. There is also the possibility to filter to change the results and how they are shown:

• Filter by date: Results can be from any date, by default. You can change this by selecting a specific year or entering a period;
• Change the rating: The ordering of results is by relevance, by default. If you prefer, you can also ask them to be shown to you by date, from most recent to oldest;
• Change the language: Results can be in any language, by default. If you want to guarantee that you will understand them without using Google Translate, you can limit the results to Portuguese only;
• It is also possible to include or exclude patents and citations by checking or unchecking the boxes.

Advanced search

It is really recommended that you use the advanced Google Scholar search to better refine the results and find exactly what you are looking for. Activate it by opening the menu represented by three lines in the corner of the screen and then clicking "Advanced Search".

There are the following search refinement options through "Advanced Search":

• Find articles:
  • With all the words: Through this option, all results will have ALL words written;
  • With the exact phrase: Through this option, the results will have to have the EXACT PHRASE you wrote, without any changes;
  • With at least one of the words: Through this option, the results will have at least ONE of the words searched, without necessarily containing all;
  • Without the words: Through this option, the words written here will be EXCLUDED from the results;
  • Where my words occur: Through this option, you can determine if you want the searched terms to be present only in the title or if they can be anywhere on the page, be it title or body.
• View articles by: Through this option, the search will return only results authored by people with the name here;
• View articles published in: Through this option, the search will return only results that have been published in the magazines and newspapers you searched for here;
• Display articles dated between: Finally, using this option, the search will return only results that have been published between the two years entered.

My library

When you find the articles you were looking for in Google Scholar, you can add them to your library for easy access if you don't finish them, or just want to review them. Just click on the star icon below them to do this. Access your library by clicking "My Library", just below your account.

Configure alerts

It is also possible to set up alerts through Google Scholar, so that whenever news about a topic is released, you know.

This can be done using the "Create Alert" on the left side of the screen. Then, you will have to configure it, deciding which terms to include, by what email address you receive the alerts and how many results you want by notification.

What did you think of the complete guide on Google Scholar?

Tell us what you think about this great Google tool and what you think about our guide. Don't forget to also check out everything about Google Maps and Google Calendar, in addition to seeing the best activities to do at home and promote your well-being in quarantine.