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Google Scholar

Connecting Google Scholar to UM's Library

You can customize Google Scholar to include full-text links to journal articles and other electronic resources available through the University of Montevallo library. 

On Campus:

If you are on campus, Google Scholar will recognize you as a Montevallo student, faculty, or staff member and will automatically link you to the full text. Just go to Google Scholar and start searching.

Off Campus:

If you are accessing Google Scholar from off-campus, you will need to first activate Google Scholar’s Library Links. Follow the steps below for this one-time set-up process. 

  1. Go to Google Scholar search page.

  2. Sign-in to your Google account, if you are not already signed in.

  3. Click on the left menu button and then click Settings .

  4. Select Library links and search for Montevallo.

  5. Check University of Montevallo – Full-text@UM in the search results.

  6. Search for and check Open WorldCat - Library Search, if it's not already showing.

  7. Then click Save.

Screenshot of library links settings

When full-text is available through the UM library, you will see the Full-text@UM link to the right of the result listing.  

Screen shot of Full@UM link to the right of a Google Search result

Getting Full Text Articles & Making Interlibrary Loan Requests

After you have configured Google Scholar to connect with UM's library, you can access full-text articles and place interlibrary loan requests from within the search engine. Watch the brief video below to see how this works. Then scroll to read more about interlibrary loan and off-campus access.

A note about interlibrary loan (ILL)

While interlibrary loan was described earlier, if you want to learn more about this service, visit the library's interlibrary loan guide. It contains information about creating a free account, placing requests for articles, and more. And please be advised that access to the articles is not immediate. It could take a few days to a week or two for you to receive a copy of the article from the lending library.

A note about off-campus access

If you are accessing Google Scholar off-campus, the first time you click to access full-text or place a full-text request for an article, you will see the log-in screen below. When you see this, simply log-in with your UM username and password (the same log-in used for Canvas). Once logged in, you will automatically be directed to either the full-text article or a pre-filled interlibrary loan request form as described earlier. 

Basic Search Tips

A good Google Scholar strategy is to try multiple searches, adjusting your keywords with each search. Google Scholar is very similar to Google, so you can use these search terms in a regular Google search as well.

  • How do you get more relevant search results?
    • Search with multiple keywords that best represent the core of your topic: doctor stress retention
  • How do you search for alternate terms?
    • Use OR with the alternate terms enclosed in parentheses: (teenager OR adolescent) sports
  • How do you search by title or phrase?
    • Put the title or phrase in quotation marks: “A History of the China Sea”   “social learning theory”
  • How do you find works that have recently been published?
    • Google Scholar’s default is to sort the search results by relevance. You can limit by more recent years or put in your own custom date range. For example, click “Since 2019” in the left sidebar of the search results page to get articles published within the last few years.
  • How do you get better search results?
    • If you are new to the subject, it may be helpful to search with some of the terminology from secondary sources, e.g., an encyclopedia or a Wikipedia article.
    • Authors often write multiple works about a topic. Search for or click on the author’s name to see what else they have written.
    • Click Related articles to see related work on the same topic.
    • Click Cited by beneath a work to see newer papers that referenced it.
    • Explore! There is rarely a single answer to a research question. Try searching for different subtopics or angles related to your work.

 

Advanced Search Tips

For more complex searches, try Google Scholar’s Advanced Search page. To access the advanced search option, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the three horizontal bars (the hamburger menu icon) in the upper left corner of the Google Scholar search page.
  2. Click on Advanced search.

screenshot of menu icon highlighted with advanced search selected  

  1. From the Advanced search pop-up box, choose the search option(s) you need.

  

The advanced search allows you to search more precisely.

  • Find articles with the following filters:
    • With all of the words – Choosing this option means all of your keywords must appear in the search; however, they may or may not be next to each other.
    • With the exact phrase – Choosing this option means all of the words will appear together in the exact same order you typed them in.
    • With at least one of the words – Choosing this option means one or more of the words will appear in the search results.
    • Without the words – Choosing this option means you want to exclude one or more words in the search results.
  • You can direct the search by choosing where your search words occur. For example, you can select anywhere in the article or in the title of the article.
  • Try the Return articles authored by option to see resources by a specific author.
  • Use the Return articles published in to search for titles in a specific journal, etc.
  • Use the Return articles dated between option to limit to specific years.

 

This page was adapted from "Using Google Scholar" by University of Nevada, Reno Library, which is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Using Other Google Scholar Features

My Library

Look for the star icon found below the article to save it to "My Library". You must be logged into Google to use this feature. If you are not, you will be prompted to log-in.

screenshot of article search result with the save (star) button highlighted

You can access the articles you save by clicking Star (My Library) icon on the top right corner of the screen. Or you can click the menu icon  on the left corner of the screen, and then select "My Library" from the menu options.

Email Alerts

 

Do you want to keep up with the latest research in your field of study? Email alerts tell Google Scholar to periodically email you newly published papers that match your search criteria.

 

To sign up for email alerts:

  1. Do a search for the topic of interest, e.g., “treatment of alzheimer’s disease”.
  2. Click the envelope icon in the sidebar of the search results page.

left side of Google Scholar screen with "create alert" highlighted   

  1. Enter your email address.
  2. Click Create alert.

Cited By

 

Use the Cited by link to find articles and books that cite a specific article.

The cited by feature is a great way to find more recent articles and to trace an idea from its original source up to the present.

  1. Start by locating a relevant search result in Google Scholar.
  2. Look for the Cited by link at the bottom of the result. It will list the number of times the item has been cited by others.

  

  1. Click the Cited by link to see a list of the items that cite your original item. Older and more influential items typically have a higher number of Cited by results.
  2. You can limit these cited by results. Search for keywords within the results by checking the box for Search within citing articles at the top of the search and following the prompts, or limit the date range by choosing an option on the left side of the page under Any time.

  

 

You can also click the Related articles link, the next link after "Cited by", to view articles that Google has identified as being related to the original article.

This page was adapted from "Using Google Scholar" by University of Nevada, Reno Library, which is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

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