Content originally published on data180.com. Learn more about Interfolio’s acquisition of Data180 here.
Google has built an ecosystem that many consider indispensable, and its most commonly used aspect is the search engine. However, using the search engine for research purposes is a bit of a gamble. Finding credible sources can be difficult, especially with the large number of results a typical search query produces. This is where Google Scholar comes in.
Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) provides academics and researchers an alternative to the standard Google search. In Google Scholar, you can generate refined searches for scholarly articles and patents, and you can search through case laws, limiting your results to either federal and/or state courts.
The search results are retrieved from a variety of sources, including articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories and universities, as well as other relevant web sites.
In addition, if your work has been published in a journal or on a web site, Google Scholar allows you to find it, since the system collects published journals from around the web. You can also find a colleague’s work through Google Scholar.
Google Scholar also offers a method of tracking who is citing your work by allowing you to link your work to your Google Scholar profile. After creating a Google Scholar profile, the system will search the web for articles that you’ve written and present them in a list format. Simply select the articles that you’ve written, and they will be linked to your profile.
You can also specify if you want Google to automatically link articles that you write in the future. From then on, you will be able to see data that shows who has viewed and/or cited your work over time.
A benefit that comes from linking your work to your Google Scholar account is the ability to export a record of your work. You can choose to export your work through a couple formats, including BibTex, EBSCO, and RIS. Exporting also allows you to upload your work to other databases, including faculty activity reporting systems used by many academic institutions.
Content originally published on data180.com. Learn more about Interfolio’s acquisition of Data180 here.