Google Scholar works just like regular Google, but should only return scholarly resources. It searches a little differently than most library databases, and can be leveraged with other search techniques to find resources that don't fit neatly into a single subject or that don't necessarily rise to the top of a search in other tools.
Because most of the material returned by a Google Scholar search is published in journals that require subscriptions, full text is not included by default on most results, but with a few quick steps, you can connect the search engine to George Fox Libraries to access resources in our collections or to connect with our Interlibrary Loan services for easy requests.
Use the link above to search your topic and have Google Scholar recognize you as a George Fox user, and link to our full text subscriptions. Google Scholar indexes a broad array of scholarly literature and can be useful for citation counts (article importance/impact) and is helpful in learning terminology.
An excellent option for using Google Scholar to connect to library databases is described below.
Link your Google account to the George Fox Library, so the “Find it at George Fox U” links will always appear – even if you don’t start your search from our link.
To configure your settings manually, try the following steps:
1. Go to https://scholar.google.com/
2. Click the three lines in the top left corner.
3. Click "Settings".
4. Click "Library Links".
5. Search for George Fox University. Check the “George Fox University - Find it at George Fox U” box.
6. Save your settings.
You can now continue to search and should see the Find it at George Fox U links next to articles we have access to. You may also try clicking the article title directly and if we have access may be taken to the full text article on the publisher's site.
1) Unlike traditional library databases, Google Scholar is not searching through a curated collection of resources - it's searching the open web and applying an algorithm to determine what is scholarly or not. Although Scholar is believed to only search scholarly parts of the web, and the Google algorithm is the magic juice that powers much of the modern internet, it is wise to carefully consider your sources when using this tool.
2) Google Scholar does not use Boolean Search logic (ex. anti-racism AND education). Instead, you can search with general keywords (ex. anti-racism education). Scholar is also less specific than most traditional databases at recognizing related terms. Where a database is only looking for the term "education", Scholar might also pick up results that include "teaching", "educators", and "schools". This can be helpful, but it can also muddy your results.
3) Because of the way Scholar returns results and connects with library systems, you may see duplication of results, partial citations, and an occasional broken link. Make sure to check your citations carefully, and don't give up if the built in connectors don't lead you to full text. You can always search for article or book titles in Primo or contact the library for help in finding full text.
4) Google Scholar offers a cited by function that will allow you to see results that list a given article or book in their citations. This can be a great way to find and follow the scholarly conversation or to find more recent work in the same field.
5) Google Scholar is part of the larger Google system - keep in mind that it may be tracking your search history and other online data. This may not be an issue for many researchers, but it's good to know where your information is captured.