The majority of Google Scholar users are focused on building an author profile and increasing scientometric indicators. Earlier we looked at the capabilities of this service in the context of creating a profile, editing the information that is placed there, and displaying data on the main indicators of the author's research activity. Today we will look at the other functions of the Google Academy platform, namely searching for materials and using it as a bibliographic manager.
Google Academy: searching the articles
After registering with Google Scholar and logging in to the platform, a search window is displayed to the scholar. It is intuitively familiar to all Google Chrome browser users. The search is based on keywords or phrases. The platform's algorithms also suggest using the most popular queries. For example:
Then, all relevant matches for the key query are displayed. Let's take a closer look at all possible search functions for scientific articles.
- Material sorting: by year of publication, by relevance and date of publication, by type of work, with or without display of patents, and number of citations.
- The overall number of search results.
- The most relevant to the search query.
- Similar search variants.
- The ability to directly download the text and its format (pdf., doc., txt. etc.).
Let's take a closer look at the features of working with search results. Each user has a set of basic free features for working with Google Scholar materials. These include:
- The primary source of the work is accessed by clicking on the title. Please note, not all sources are in the public domain, for complete access to some of them a payment fee may be indicated.
- The author's profile can be accessed by clicking on the researcher's name.
- Saving as favorite – “Save”.
- Forming the correct citation option for your paper (according to the required style, e.g. APA, MLA, etc.) – "Cite".
- View other works where the material is cited – "Cited by".
- View works that are related to the material - "Related articles".
- Viewing other versions of the work – “All versions”.
The platform also provides a search by advanced parameters - "Advanced Search". These include:
- Ability to find a query by a set of keywords.
- By phrase.
- By one of the words provided.
- By excluding specific words.
- By a match in the title or text.
- By author.
- By journal.
- By publication year.
Google Scholar as a bibliographical manager
To use Google Scholar as a bibliographic manager, each user should become familiar with the features of the My Library tab.
All records previously saved by the user are located there. It is worth noting that functions #1, #2, #4, #5, #6, and #7 from the list above remain the same. Also, the scientist has the ability to:
- Configure folders and reading lists and add new or remove existing ones.
- Sort entries by publication date.
- Move an entry from one reading list to another.
- Remove a saved entry.
- Edit entry.
- Export records in table format or a specific bibliographic manager (EndNote, BibTeX, etc.)
As such, each user has a fairly wide range of options regarding the search for and management of articles in Google Academy. These are very useful features in the context of preparing research papers, citation lists, and references.
If you have any questions regarding the use of the Google Scholar platform, please contact the "Scientific Publications" company experts. We have many years of experience in conducting research projects of any level of complexity. Our company provides an exclusive service "Citation in Google Scholar", which includes a detailed analysis of the author's profile, the selection of appropriate materials for citation, increasing scientometric indicators, and increasing the necessary metrics to a certain level.
We are happy to cooperate with You!
Let us remind you that the material "Scopus and WoS publishing: the journal selection and self-citation rate" has been released recently.