What? A subset of Google that searches for scholarly literature on the web. A mix of full-text, citations and abstracts.
New: Three of the library’s digital collections are now indexed in Google Scholar: JSTOR, Ebsco, and Proquest.
Meaning? When searching Google Scholar, freely available citations, abstracts and full-text are retrieved, AND now, content from the three library providers named above.
“Adolescents and Sleep.” Search results page. Google Scholar. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.
Quick note: While an exciting and valuable tool, Google Scholar is a non-discerning aggregator, in that it includes questionable and even possibly predatory open-access titles. When using Google Scholar, consider consulting Beall’s list of “Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers” as well as this guide from Berkley’s Science Center for the Greater Good to help assess the quality of an academic source: “10 Questions to Ask About Scientific Studies.”
For a little look into predatory journal practices, here’s a 2013 New York Times article titled: Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)
Another Quick note: Retrieval of full-text articles, from these three library providers, using the links in Google Scholar, is only available while on-campus. Off the grounds? Please log in to vpn.sps.edu and locate the article directly from the named database.
Leave a Reply