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Strategy1_GoBroad

Strategy #1: Go Broad First, Then Narrow In

Forest first - trees secondThe first research strategy is to get a bigger picture of your topic/interest and explore what is already out there. Looking broad will help you:

The Learning Outcome for this researching strategy is to: Engage in the research process and construct knowledge by:

    • Defining a research topic/questions
    • Articulating information needs and research purpose
    • Implementing effective search strategies
    • Developing an awareness of disciplinary pedagogies and research traditions

 

Knowledge

Google Scholar Links to an external site. is an academic search engine that links to resources, it does not contain resources. Knowing that Google Scholar can be linked to the University of Utah Library is an important first step when doing library research. Although the library provides access to thousands of databases and millions of books, we do not own or have access to everything. Google Scholar has limitations too. It does not access all resources out there  either but it is a great start! Google Scholar:

Basic Skills

Linking Google Scholar and The University of Utah library:

  1. First authenticate to the U of U if off campus by logging in on the library homepage, or logging into CIS
  2. Click on the Settings link (wheel icon) at the top left of the Google Scholar page (or click on the menu icon if using chrome and then click on Settings)
  3. Click on Library Links on the left navigation menu, type in University of Utah to the search box and search, then check the box for the Get it at the UU option. Click save Button. These settings will stay on your computer until you clean out your cache. Now you will see the Get at the UU link on the right side of the search list page if Utah has that article in any of our databases.
  4. Now when the U of U library has full text of article, your will see the Get at UofU link - click that will take you to a Marriott Library page and show you what database you find the article (sometimes just 1, sometimes many databases may contain that article)

Other Menu Searching Features:
After you search you will see a new left hand navigation menu appear:

    1. You can limit by year (and select a range of dates)
    2. You can click the save link and make a list of sources in own library if you are logged into Google
    3. Sort by date or relevance
    4. Include citations or patents (or not) by using the check box

Other Cool Google Scholar Features:

  1. After completing a search using keywords to find scholarly articles, you will see under the search item listing, cited by #, related articles links that will take you to other articles to check out.
    • Take note of journal names, keywords, author names, you can limit by those to search later
    • By clicking on the Cited By, you will see all the scholars who have cited that article since it was published 
  2. If an author name is underlined, you can click on their name and see all of the publications in their Google Scholar Profile (you may find articles on the same topic - scholars often publish on the same topics across their careers)
  3. The "" (quotation mark link) will open up citations for that article in MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and Vancouver citation formats BUT A DISCLAIMER - not always correct - you will need to check the formats - but a great start to creating a citation
  4. Use the Advanced search box Links to an external site. in the Google Scholar menu

 

Level Up to Advanced Skills

Interested in learning more about going broad, but with more advanced skills? For graduate students or more serious scholars, Google Scholar provides a variety of additional features:

Set Up a lInk to Export to Your Citation Manger (Select EndNote for Endnote or RefMan for Zotero)
Under the Google Scholar menu at the bottom of the Search Results page, you can select and save your preferred format for your citation manager. This this will create a link on the main Scholar search window to click and download a citation file to your downloads. Then you can upload into your citation manager software. I use endnote and it creates a scholar.enw file that I then can import into Endnote Basic. If you are using Zotero - save as a RefMan file it will be .ris file (a generic file format) 


Setting up Google Scholar Alerts for Successful Search Strings
Once you do a Google Scholar search and the search yields good results for your search topic, you can save that search (including the keywords you used) and set up an email alert, so that every time a source is published that aligns to your search terms you will get an email alert.

  • Helps so that you do waste time going back and researching with the same keywords
  • Lets you take a look at the newly published work in an organized manner when you have time
  • Can delete and edit how many alerts, or change search string
  • You can put in any email address (do not need to use your Google email - but then you cannot manage alerts if they are going somewhere else) You can cancel the alerts from the emails that arrive in your designated inbox.

Save Articles in your My Library
When you are logged into Google, you will see a My Library link and you can save articles to library by clicking on the Star at the bottom right of the search listing. It will save the article to a list for you.

  • You can add labels (multiple ones to each article), and search your library as well by label or key terms and you can create check boxes of articles to create a group list for export into citation management software

Setting up a Google Scholar Profile
Starting to publish? Create a Google Scholar profile and add in your articles to keep track of how many citations you have, see who is citing you, and begin to develop an identity as. scholar.

    • You can add citations manually (ex grey literature conference papers)
    • You can also check a box to automatically add citations.
    • You can find and follow other scholars

 

Additional Resources