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Psychology: Google Scholar

A specific collection of library resources for Psychology majors.

About Google Scholar

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.

Google Advanced Search Screen

Using Words as Search Operators

Using words as search operators is an advanced search feature for locating more precise and relevant results. It is equal to searching within a field using the advance search interface of familiar library databases. A list of operators is below. 

intitle:search term

  • Results include a specific search term in the title of the article

intext:search term

  • Results include a specific search term in the body of the article

Author:"first name last name"

  • Results include articles written by a specific author

Source:"journal title"

  • Results include articles with your keyword within a specific journal publication 

inventor:"first name last name"

  • Results include patent related documents including the name of a patent inventor

assignee:"entity name”

  • Results include patent related documents including the entity that is granted the ownership of the patent

Link to RefWorks

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.Google Scholar Horizontal Bar icon to access menu.
  2. To access Settings, click on the cog/gear icon.Google Scholar Settings Icon.
  3. Click Search Results.
  4. Underneath the Bibliography Manager heading, select RefWorks from the dropdown menu.
  5. Click Save.

Google Scholar RefWorks Setting.

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

Google Scholar Import Into RefWorks Link

Link to QU Articles

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.Google Scholar Horizontal Bar icon to access menu.
  2. To access Settings, click on the cog/gear icon.Google Scholar Settings Icon.
  3. Click Library Links and search for Quinnipiac.
  4. Check off the box next to "Quinnipiac University."
  5. Click Save.

Google Scholar Library Links page.

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!

Google Scholar Full-Text @ Quinnipiac U link.

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.

Pros & Cons of Google Scholar

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.

Google Scholar Search Help