Skip to Main Content

Google Scholar Basics

Learn how to use Google Scholar to find full-text articles, complete known query searches, and compare and contrast to library databases.

google scholar mainpage

Google Scholar is a powerful tool in your research toolkit. If you have used a Google search, you are probably familiar with the layout and functionality of Google Scholar. Its familiar, easy-to-use single search box is one of its many benefits.

With Google Scholar, you can:

  • sort results by relevance to query and date of publication
  • easily see the number of times a publication has been cited
  • search broadly across many disciplines (makes multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary work easier to find)
  • search across document types (articles, book chapters, patents, citations, etc.)