Frequently Asked Questions
What does Google Scholar search for?
Google Scholar searches specifically for “scholarly literature” including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles.
Where does it search?
It searches a broad range of free and subscription based sources including academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organisations.
What will be included in my results?
Some links in Google Scholar results will lead to full-text documents, others will lead to abstracts or cited references.
How can I get full text?
The Library has activated a feature that enables search results in Google Scholar to show a Find it @ UWA link. This allows UWA staff and students to access the full text of articles where we hold an electronic subscription to the journal.
How do I set up the Find it @ UWA link?
How do I download citations from Google Scholar to EndNote?
When should I use Google Scholar?
Google Scholar may be useful if you need to find a few quick references. For a thorough search of academic literature we recommend that you search UWA Library databases. Library databases offer a number of advantages over Google Scholar:
- Coverage: Library databases usually span a wider range of years with coverage of scholarly literature extending further back compared to Google Scholar.
- Greater depth: Library databases frequently specialise in one subject area and so cover the literature of that particular subject in much greater depth than Google Scholar.
- Range of search tools: A much wider range of tools to sort results, refine searches and to limit searches to particular types of materials is offered by Library databases. This will result in more relevant results.
To identify which Library databases might be useful to you contact a librarian in your subject library. Suitable databases can be recommended according to your specific needs. Alternatively use SuperSearch to select the appropriate subject and sub-category under the Subject tab in Find Resource.
Set up Find it @ UWA links in Google Scholar
On campus users will see additional links in Google Scholar search results which facilitate access to the UWA Library’s resources. These links lead to a Find it menu, which in turn, directs users to the full-text of the article, or to further options for finding the article.
Off campus users must manually indicate their affiliation with UWA within Google Scholar for these links to appear. To indicate institutional affiliation in Google Scholar:
- Go to Google Scholar and click Scholar Preferences.
- In the Library Links search box search for University of Western Australia (UWA or University of WA will also work).
- Tick the checkbox for the option The University of Western Australia (Find it @ UWA).
- Click Save Preferences.
Off campus users will still need to authenticate to view the full text of articles.
When you have run a search in Google Scholar you will find two kinds of Find it @ UWA links in your search results. A link on the same line as the title of the article indicates full text is available. Selecting this option will open a Find it menu which directs users to the full text.
Figure 1: Find it @ UWA link displays next to title - full text is available.
A less prominent link below the article citation indicates full text may not be available. Selecting this option will open a Find-It menu with other options such as Check the Catalogue, Request via Document Delivery or Ask a Question.
Figure 2: Find it @ UWA link displays beneath article citation - full text may not be available.
Downloading citations from Google Scholar to EndNote
- Go to Google Scholar and click Scholar Preferences.
- Scroll down to Bibliography Manager.
- Select the option to Show links to import citations into EndNote (or whichever bibliographic software you are using).
- Click Save Preferences.
