First Year Writing

Google Scholar is a freely available search engine specifically designed for scholarly literature.

It crawls the web for academic publications across a wide range of disciplines, including articles, theses, books, abstracts, and even court opinions and patents.

PROS:

• Freely Available: Anyone with an internet connection can access Google Scholar, making it a valuable tool for researchers without a university affiliation.
• Broad Search: Google Scholar indexes a massive amount of scholarly content across various disciplines.
• Up-to-Date Results: Google Scholar often includes recently published articles before they are indexed by other databases.

CONS:

• Limited Search Options: Compared to library databases, Google Scholar offers fewer options for filtering and refining searches by specific criteria.
• Incomplete Full-Text Access: While Google Scholar does link to full-text articles, access often requires a paid subscription or interlibrary loan through a university library.
• Quality Control: Google Scholar does NOT evaluate source credibility as rigorously as librarian-curated databases. Not everything indexed is peer-reviewed, and some content may be unreliable or misleading.

While Google Scholar offers a valuable starting point for researchers, university library subscription databases (i.e. ABI/Inform, Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, etc.) provide a more controlled and reliable research environment.

To see a complete list of Databases the Quinnipiac Library subscribes to, please follow this link: Library Databases.

How can I connect Google Scholar to the library's resources?

1. Go to Google Scholar and click on the three horizontal bars in the left corner to view the menu.
2. To access Settings, click on the cog/gear icon.
3. Click Library Links and search for Quinnipiac.
4. Check off the box next to "Quinnipiac University."
5. Click Save.

A Full Text @ Quinnipiac U link will now appear in your Google Scholar results. Click on this link to see if we have the article in our collection!

Remember that a login with a QU username and password may be required. The easiest way to do this is to make sure you're logged into MyQ in your browser window before opening up a Google Scholar search.

How can I connect Google Scholar to RefWorks?

1. Go to Google Scholar and click on the three horizontal bars in the left corner to view the menu.
2. To access Settings, click on the cog/gear icon.
3. Click Search Results.
4. Underneath the Bibliography Manager heading, select RefWorks from the dropdown menu.
5. Click Save.

An Import into RefWorks link will now appear in your Google Scholar results. Click on this link to export your citation into RefWorks.