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AP Seminar/AP Research Guide

How to Search

Avoid Natural Language

  • Stick to keywords and phrases - don't write out questions in full.

Use Quotation Marks Around Phrases 

  • This ensures your search results will include the phrase, not the individual words found separately in the document.

Use the Advanced Search

  • It will be located in different places depending on the database, but it will help refine and improve your search.

Use Limiters Provided by the Database to Narrow/Focus Your Results

  • Limiters are usually found on the left or right hand side of your search results.
  • Limit by source type, date of publication, reading level, subject, publication, and more

Use Boolean Operators

     

Exact match: "search" 

  • If you're looking for an exact phrase, use quotation marks.

  • For example: "let them eat cake"

Site-specific: site: 

  • Put site: in front of a website or domain if you want to get results from only a specific site or domain.  

  • For example: recipes site:nytimes.com or climate change site:.gov

Exclusion: -search 

  • Put a minus sign/hyphen in front of a word you want excluded from your search results.  This is helpful if your search term has multiple meanings

  • For example: inception -film

Why Use It?

  • Use Google Scholar to search for open access academic journal articles.

Keep in Mind:

What is Unique to Scholar?  You can...

  • Click "Cited by" to see articles that cite the article you are looking at.
  • Click "Related articles" to find similar articles.
  • Click "All versions" to check if there is full-text access to a different version.

How Do You Know If You Have Access To Full Text?

  • PDF link is noted at right of search results.

More Google Scholar Search Tips

You found the perfect article!  Now what?

  • Check the Authors, Source, Subject Terms, and Author Supplied Keywords
    • Authors - These authors may have published other articles on the same subject.  Search for them specifically!
    • Source - Many journals cover a very specific subject matter.  Explore that journal specifically for articles.
    • Subject Terms - In academic databases, like Academic Search Premier, subject terms are hyperlinked and will take you to other articles on the same subject when clicked.
    • Author Supplied Keywords - These are the keywords created by the author, so clicking these, or using these keywords in other databases/search engines, will help find similar articles.

You can also:

  • ​​​​​​​Check the references!  If any titles seem promising, search for them.
  • Use "Cited by" and "related articles" in Google Scholar.