COMM 3021: Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free online search engine that allows you to search for scholarly print and electronic materials. Google Scholar can also be used to search for the materials that Valdosta State University subscribes to. The library pays for access to these articles so you don’t have to!  

If you access Google Scholar on VSU’s campus, you will automatically see “Full Text @ VSU” links next to articles. This means that we subscribe to those articles. If you are off campus, please see below.

If you are off campus and do not see any of the “Full Text @ VSU” links, you can add VSU as a library in the settings by completing the following steps:

1.       Go to Google Scholar.

2.       Click on “Settings” in the upper middle of the screen

3.       Click on “Library Links” on the left hand side

4.       Search for “Valdosta State University” and click on “Valdosta State University Odum Library – Full Text  @ VSU”

5.       Click save.

See below for more information on how to use Google Scholar: 

https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html#overview

Backward Citation 

Use Google Scholar to click through the articles cited by other authors.

Forward Citation

Use 'Cited By' to see what articles cited the article you found.

Create Lists

Use Google Scholar to create lists of articles that can help with your projects.

Follow the recommendations

See what the search algorithm recommends based on your keywords.

Google Scholar is not perfect. There may be articles that have been retracted (canceled), incomplete articles, and miscellaneous items that are not scholarly. Ask a librarian your questions about articles that might not look suitable for your research needs.