Google Scholar
Google Scholar can assist in locating academic literature. It provides details of journal articles, scientific papers, conference proceedings and so on from a variety of sources. In some instances, you will find freely available access to the full text but this is not comprehensive.
Link to University of Cumbria content
You can set up Google Scholar to provide links to the full text available via the university. Follow these instructions in Google Scholar:
- Click on the 3 menu bars - top left
- Click on Settings
- Then on Library Links
- Search for University of Cumbria
- Tick all the options
- Save (you must have cookies enabled)
You need to do this on each device or computer you use.
Look for the 'Check for full text' links to our content on the right hand side of the results list
Libkey Nomad
In addition to the linking above you can also use Libkey Nomad to help you find full text via Google Scholar.
Firstly install the Libkey Nomad extension in your browser.
In Google Scholar - if you click on a title you will go to the publisher's website. Where we have access to the article an image, similiar to the one below, will pop up bottom left of your screen:
Onesearch or Google Scholar?
Onesearch searches all of our subscribed content so you should be able to get full text for most of your results (no system is foolproof!) It also has better search and filtering options supporting more efficient searching - see our guides Quick guide to OneSearch - basic and Quick guide to OneSearch - advanced
Google Scholar uses Google technology to gather together academic content from publishers across the web. It will often find you more results as it draws from a bigger 'universe' of material. However you cannot easily build such a detailed search strategy. Their Advanced Search option is hidden away in the menu, top left, and is not as flexible as in Onesearch. The results page does not provide as many filters to narrow down the results and the full text may not be freely available. It may not be as up to date with new material.
It is useful, though, for wider searching, for checking if an article is freely available and for tracking down hard to find references. It can also find material from university websites and institutional repositories.
Getting the best out of Google Scholar
No single search system is comprehensive. For the best coverage you need to be aware of and use a variety of sources. Our subject pages can provide you with a good start. To get the best out of Google Scholar read on:
- Setup links to our full text (see above)
- Install Libkey Nomad as above
- Evaluate any free content you find. Free content may not always be of good academic quality. Compare with other literature on that topic.
- Be aware that publishers make individual articles freely available for short periods of time for marketing purposes. It does not mean that all the content from that journal will be freely available.
- If a link does not work correctly, go to Onesearch and search for the item or check our Journals A-Z for coverage. Email skills@cumbria.ac.uk for assistance if necessary.
- Employ search tips, such as phrase searching to reduce hits and increase relevance by putting key phrases in speech marks e.g. “digital marketing”
- Click the “Cite” icon to see how to reference an article. The nearest option to Cite them Right is ‘APA’ but you need to edit it using our referencing guides. From this screen you can also transfer your reference to Refworks
- Set your default to always show Refworks as your referred reference manager. Go to Settings - Bibliography Manager - Set Show links to import citations to Refworks.
- The 'cited by' option is a useful tool - see below
Using Google Scholar to measure research impact
Google Scholar is one of the tools you can use to check the impact or influence of a paper or article. Where an item has been cited, or referenced by others, you will find a ‘cited by’ option. This shows who has used the item within their paper. Click the ‘cited by’ option to find the reference list for that article and the access options.
Setup an alert to be notified when a paper or article appears in a subsequent one.