Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar uses the Google search engine to search databases owned by scholarly societies, publishers and universities as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar can give some very useful results for a review of past research, but is not explicit about which bibliographic databases and journals it searches, so for a comprehensive review you should also search the important databases for your subject.

Access full-text

Some Google Scholar search results include links to full-text when full-text is freely available on the web; some results offer only citations. In order to facilitate access to full-text via our subscriptions the Library has sent Google information about our holdings, our linking utility (SFX), and the IP ranges (internet address) for our campus networks. If the Library has a subscription to the full-text you will see a link to Fulltext@ NUI Galway

Set NUI Galway as your library preference

If you are using a computer connected to the University network, Google Scholar recognizes your IP address, and sets NUI Galway as your default library preference.
If you are off-campus, you must set NUI Galway as your library preference:

• On the Google Scholar search page, click on the Settings link to open the Scholar Settings webpage. 
• On the Scholar Settings webpage, click Library Links to search for your preferred Library. 
• Enter NUI Galway in the Library links search box and hit search 
• In the results page check the box next to NUI Galway. 
• Save these Library links.

If you allow cookies on your computer, this setting will stay in place across search sessions.
Note: 

• You can set up additional library preferences, if you have access to other libraries. 
• You can set Scholar Settings to download citations to your preferred bibliographic management software, such as EndNote.

Remember if you are off-campus you must log in to access information from library subscribed databases.

What to do if there is no FullText@NUI Galway link

• Check the Library Catalogue – not all resources are linked through the SFX system.
• Click on the title of the citation in Google Scholar – this may lead to an open access or freely available version of the article. 
• Use the Inter-library Loan Service to request the article or book. 

Can I research all the relevant information on a topic via Google Scholar?

No – you need to search subject specific and interdisciplinary academic databases for in-depth, comprehensive academic research.
Google Scholar is useful for broad background searches of scholarly literature and for searching across many disciplines. It is also useful for searching for the work of particular authors and for tracking cited references.

You will need to search individual Library scholarly databases:

• to do comprehensive searches across many years of scholarly literature. 
• for in-depth literature searches in a narrow topic. 
• if you would like to do structured searching using subject headings and thesaurus terms. 
• for concise, authoritative encyclopedia, dictionary, handbook and physical properties definitions 
• for detailed business information.