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Sociology Graduate Student Resources

Google Tips

  • Limit to a specific site in the basic Google search bar: "black holes" site:.http://www.physicstoday.org
  • Use quotes to search for a phrase: "dog sweaters"
  • Use a hyphen to exclude words: jaguar speed -car
  • Find a page that links to another: link:library.ucmerced.edu
  • Find sites similar to other sites: related:npr.com
  • Find results limited to a specific file type: 2017 1040 EZ filetype:pdf

What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar allows you to search for scholarly articles, patents, legal documents, theses, and more.

If you are connected to the VPN, you can use UC e-Links to gain full-text access to articles in our collection. You may need to click on the >> icon under the article description to view the UC eLinks option. 

Google Scholar Quick Links

Why Word Order Matters In Google

Indexing, Ranking and Google

Google Scholar looks at multiple pieces of information to determine where the document ranks.  This information includes full text, place of publication, author, how often it is cited etc..  GS returns citations in a relevance ranking. 

Publishers often allow Google to crawl their publications for inclusion in this index.  Google Scholar will include articles that are cited in other academic articles even if they are non-scientific and is prone to index items like course descriptions due to their inclusion of a reference list.

Some individuals have blogged about the inclusion of predatory Open Access (OA) journals appearing in Google Scholar results lists. "Google Scholar is Filled with Junk Science"

Beall's List of Predatory Open Access Publishers (2015)