With Google Scholar, Google has launched the most comprehensive database for „academic“ content on the market. You will probably not get as many search results from any other database as from Google Scholar, but this already points to the problem: Since it is not clearly defined what makes up an „academic contribution“, Google Scholar includes the content of all university-related websites. It can happen that you also find presentations (e.g. from a course), gray literature, seminars or theses in your search results list. Whether you can use this type of source in your work must then be checked individually (see also Evaluating Sources of Information).
However, Google Scholar offers many advantages:
- Under „Cited by:“ you will find articles that have cited the article you are interested in and thus the most recent papers on your topic. There is now also a link to „Web of Science“, which only contains articles from peer-reviewed journals.
- Linked authors have their own page on Google Scholar and you can find out more about them and their research there.
- Under „Key figures“ you will find the most frequently cited journals from the various academic fields (H-index). This can serve among others as a quality criterion for an academic journal.
However, you should bear this in mind:
- Even though the search in this database is free of charge, not all content is freely downloadable. Before your search, make sure that you are in the HSLU network so that you can access the media licensed by the HSLU. Under „all versions“ you can in some cases access the pre-publication of an article, which has not been published in a fee-based journal.
Further Information
Tutorial by the ZHB Lucerne (in German): Wie suche ich nach Literatur in Google Scholar? – YouTube
English tutorial: Use Google Scholar for academic research: Google Scholar search tips & tricks – YouTube