Google Scholar is fast, easy to use, and can lead to hundreds of relevant, scholarly articles within seconds. But there are dozens of other databases that may be more relevant and comprehensive for your research topic. Caveat: Some articles found through Google Scholar do not fit the criteria for a "scholarly article" as defined by professors. Evaluate each article using the criteria in this guide to determine if it is scholarly or academic.

Consider these factors when searching Google Scholar:

Access = $$$
Links for thousands of articles indexed in Google Scholar go to publishers'  Web sites, where access requires a subscriber's login or an access fee ($30-45).

The Library already paid!
Many of these same articles are available to you without additional fee, since the library pays the subscription. Our payments to the vendors give access at CSU, Chico, but may not extend to accessing the very same article at the publisher's web site.

Get quick access with no extra charge.
Look for Find It @ Chico in the Google Scholar search results. Links provide access to full-text online for CSU, Chico subscriptions.

Other databases also include full-text and may be more relevant for your topic.
Other articles indexed in Google Scholar may be accessible through Academic Search or Lexis Nexis. Another incredibly rich archive, JSTOR, is excluded from Google Scholar, as are millions of articles only found by searching comprehensive subject indexes such as Biological Abstracts, GeoRef, and others.

Improve your search strategies.
Google Scholar lacks certain features that are specifically designed for searching in a given discipline. Just a few examples: limiting by human subjects in PsycINFO, class of organism in Biological Abstracts, or by treatment in Medline. These comprehensive, highly developed subject databases are a much better choice when you need both reliable access and sophisticated search techniques.

Reduce time spent hunting for the document.
Google Scholar may offer 5 or more versions of the same article, depending on which server provides access (the publisher, the author's Web site, another indexing service, a secondary archive, etc.).

Rely on Find It @ Chico to lead you to full-text online rather than paying for an article at a publisher's Web site. We can get just about anything you need through interlibrary loan - don't hesitate to ask!

Play the field.
Relying exclusively on any single source is not recommended. Rigorous academic research requires thorough searching across databases, varying your search strategy to include synonyms and alternate spellings of keywords, utilizing appropriate subject headings supplied by the database, and understanding the breadth and depth of literature indexed by each database. The library's databases have been carefully selected to provide comprehensive, retrospective and timely access to scholarly literature.

Good for a start.
Google Scholar is certainly a good start. Recognize, however, that you are missing a lot - perhaps the key paper that will be your best resource. Rely on the library's subscriptions as your best source. Databases are all accessible at http://www.csuchico.edu/lref/guides/rbn/index.htm. You need your portal ID and password in order to login when off campus.

Want to know more? Ask a Librarian.

Go to Google Scholar.

adapted from Oberline College Library