University of Texas at San Antonio UTSA Google Scholar Research – Google Books allows you to search the full text of books. In most cases, the entire book is not available online, but Google Books will display brief previews of books on your topic which you can then locate at the UTSA Libraries using Library Quick Search, or purchase from an online seller (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.). Keep in mind that Google Books is not completely comprehensive and does not contain all books.
Google Scholar
Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, patents, and court opinions from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and websites. While there is overlap between Google Scholar, Library Quick Search, and individual library databases, it’s helpful to have a variety of research tools in your arsenal. Google Scholar searches many online journals, but is not exhaustive therefore many articles available in the UTSA Libraries’ online databases will not appear in Google Scholar results. By the same token, you may find sources in Google Scholar that aren’t available through the UTSA Libraries. Google Scholar can be a useful tool for research as long as you know when to use it and how to link your UTSA account.
Google vs. Google Books vs. Google Scholar
Google is a basic search engine designed to search the entire World Wide Web. While it is a fine resource to find quick answers and basic information, it is not a good source to use for academic research. The results provided by Google are subject to many external factors that are not ethically regulated such as paid promotion, Google bombing/washing, popular opinion, and many others. For this reason, Google should only be used in class/research for basic information like checking spelling and getting a quick overview of a topic before searching for scholarly sources.
For more information about advanced searching in standard Google, please see our Advanced Google Search Research Guide.
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Use the form on this page for advanced searching. To find this form on the web, just search for advanced google search.
Google Scholar for Academic Research
Should I use Google Scholar for academic/scientific research?
Google Scholar is a powerful tool that yields broad and comprehensive search results for many topics but also has limitations. Keep in mind that whether you choose to employ Google Scholar in your research or not, you should never rely solely on one information resource for all of your research. You can always browse the UTSA Libraries databases to find databases that fit your area.
Google Scholar Pros
- Broad and comprehensive search results for most topics
- Interdisciplinary results
- Related articles feature offers similar and related research¹
- Cited by links to articles that cite the original article¹
- Search Alerts can be configured to help keep current with your research interests¹
Google Scholar Cons
- Too broad for discipline specific research
- Results for topics studied by more than one discipline can be overwhelming to sift through
- Can only be refined by Date and/or limited to include/exclude Patents and Citations
- Limiting for journal and author must be included in advanced search and cannot be refined later
- No limiting by publication type, subject/discipline, peer-review, etc.
- Limited sort functionality
- Google Scholar Impact Factor is usually inflated
¹ These features are also available in most UTSA Libraries databases as well as the Library Quick Search
Full Text from Google Scholar
Linking Google Scholar to UTSA Libraries
If you plan to use Google Scholar off campus and want to access full-text articles, you’ll need to link UTSA Libraries for to your Google Scholar. This can be done by following the directions below or watching this tutorial.
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Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. This link goes to a custom Google Scholar search that links to UTSA resources. For the standard version please visit https://scholar.google.com
From Google Scholar
Sign in to your Google account, or use your abc123@ my.utsa.edu and passphrase
Click 
 at the top left corner
Click 
Click Library Links
Search for UTSA
Select UTSA Libraries – Available Now @ UTSA
Be sure the box next to UTSA Libraries – Available Now @ UTSA is checked
Click Save
Click the Available Now @ UTSA link for full-text access to an article. If you don’t see the link, submit a Get It For Me request, and we’ll get the material from another library for you.
If you access Google Scholar directly at scholar.google.com without logging in and creating library links, full-text linking will not be available, and you may be asked to pay.
During updates to Google Scholar these settings can be lost. If Available Now @ UTSA no longer appears, please follow the directions above to link your account again.
It is important to note that Google Scholar will not always properly link to UTSA Libraries holdings. For titles without the Available Now @ UTSA designation, we recommend visiting the item then adding the UTSA Libraries Proxy Stem and/or searching for the title, in quotations, in the Library Quick Search.
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UTSA Libraries Proxy Link/Bookmark Add this to journal article URLs found outside of the library webpage in order to check for UTSA Libraries Subscription Access. This proxy URL & bookmark takes you to the authentication page where you can put in your abc123 login and passphrase.
Google Scholar Advanced Search
Advanced Searching in Google Scholar
There are a couple of different ways to do advanced searching in Google Scholar.
From Google Scholar, you can use the menu  then select Advanced Search to view the advanced search interface
Advanced users may choose to build their searches directly from the basic search box¹², for example
mosquito mosquitoes infectious OR fatal “cholera strain” -dog author:jones source:nature
This search string would provide the same results as filling in the Advanced Search boxes as follows
Find articles
with all of the words               mosquito mosquitoes
with the exact phrase              cholera strain
with at least one of the words   infectious fatal
without the words                    dog
Return articles authored by      jones
Return articles published in     nature
¹Adding the operator allintitle: before your search will limit your search terms to article titles
²Year published has to be limited after the results appear
Tips for Google Scholar
Google Scholar will not properly link to UTSA Libraries holdings every time. For titles without the Available Now @ UTSA designation, we recommend visiting the item then adding the UTSA Libraries Proxy Stem and/or searching for the title, in quotations, in the Library Quick Search.
