Google Scholar: Searching Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches like traditional Google but the difference is in the results. Google Scholar includes sources like articles, theses, books, abstracts, conference proceedings, patents, court opinions and many more. 

Basic Search

To conduct a basic search in Google Scholar, enter your keywords in the search box and click search. You will be able to select whether you want to search articles or case law. 

Advanced Search

To do an advanced search, click on the hamburger button in the upper left corner of the Google Scholar homepage and click on Advanced Search. The advanced search feature will allow you to specify which fields you would like to search and how you would like your keywords to be searched.

Narrowing Your Search

Google Scholar does not allow you to limit your search results like the electronic resources available through the UHV Library. To assist with narrowing your search, here are some tips you can use to search more effectively:

• Put quotation marks around a phrase of words. Adding quotation marks to your search tells Google Scholar to search as a phrase instead of individual words. A search for Great Wall of China yields 520,000 results while a search for "Great Wall of China" yields 9,740 results.
• Use Boolean Search Operators
  • AND will find any items that mention your keywords, using more words connected with AND will limit your results
    • Example: immigration AND asylum will find you any items that mention both immigration and asylum
  • OR will expand your results by allowing you to search multiple concepts or synonyms at one time
    • Example: vaccines OR immunization will find any items that mention vaccines or immunization
  • NOT will exclude keywords from your results
    • Example: immigration NOT asylum 

If we don't have it, don't worry!  Our InterLibrary Loan Service can help.

We can borrow books and journal articles from another library.