Google Scholar @ ODU

What does it include?

• Peer-Reviewed Articles
• Theses & Dissertations
• Books
• Patents
• Abstracts & Scholarly Articles
• & More

How does it work?

When you do a search in Google Scholar, you get a list of citations. You'll get links to the full-text if ODU Libraries subscribes to the journal title, if it's from an open access journal, or if the researcher posted the article on his or her website.

Results

Google Scholar ranks results based on how often and recently it has been cited, and by weighing the full-text of each document, location of publication, and author. Google Scholar tends to place high weight on citation counts and words included in the document title.

• It allows you to link to ODU Resources from multiple databases.
• It can help you identify journals and authors that cover your topic.
• You may find obscure literature, like conference proceedings or articles that have been posted on researcher websites.
• You can find many formats, including books, journal articles, and more.

• You can't limit your search to peer-reviewed.
• You can't browse by journal title.
• It has a bias towards older literature.
• It may not be as current as some databases.
• Coverage is strong for sciences, but not for social sciences or humanities.
• Limited capabilities for searching, limiting, sorting, and printing.
• It ranks results based on citation, which can be limiting.