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Google Scholar Tips

Tips and tricks for using Google Scholar efficiently

Back to Basics

Before searching
1. Define your topic in precise words
2. Avoid words with multiple meanings
3. Translate words in other relevant languages

Collect new keywords while searching.

How to search
1. Ignore stop words (the, of, in, an…), lower/upper case letters and accents
2. Use quotation marks (" ") to search for exact phrasing
3. Forget truncation (* ?) in Google Scholar
4. Add operators to refine your search
5. Separate keywords with a single space

Results are sorted by relevance according to Google's algorithm.
Add &pws=0 to the end of a Google query URL to remove history-based personalisation.

Get further:

Settings

In the menu (), click on Settings ():

Find your affiliated library in the field. This will display the GetIt@IHEID or ViewIt@IHEID links in your search results.

Advanced Search

In the menu (), click on Advanced Search ():

Find articles...

  • containing your search terms in the full article
  • containing your search terms in the title
  • written by a specific author
  • published in a particular document
  • dated between two years

Use operators to improve efficiency.