Google Scholar Tips & Tricks

Set up Google Scholar’s Library Links to enhance your search results with direct links to search for the full text through the MLML/MBARI Library and SJSU’s King Library. These are very handy if the direct link to the publisher’s webpage does not provide access.

1. Sign in to your standard MLML or MBARI Google account and open Google Scholar
2. Open the left menu bar by clicking on the three lines in the upper lefthand corner
3. From the menu bar, click on "Settings"
   
4. From the settings page, click on "Library Links"
   
   
5. Type in the names of your institutions (you can activate up to 5): “Moss Landing Marine Laboratories” and “San Jose State University” and other other at which you have library use privileges.
   
   
6. Click the blue "Save" button
   
   
7. Now when you search on Google Scholar, there will be additional link to the right of the search result or in the >> menu below. Use these links to search our library catalogs if the article title and/or PDF links do not link to the full text.
    

Google Scholar library storage allows you to save articles/texts you find in your Google Scholar searches

1. Sign in to your standard MLML or MBARI Google account, open Google Scholar, and complete a search
2. Select the star underneath the article you would like to save from your search results
   
   
3. To access your saved library: open the left menu bar by clicking on the three lines in the upper lefthand corner then click "My Library"
   
   
   

One of the best features of Google Scholar is the citation generator.

1. Click the two quotation marks (next to the star) under the search result you would like to cite
   
   
2. Google Scholar will pull up a list of different citation formats that you can copy and paste
   
   

• AND to search for multiple words or phrases
  • Ex: Dogs or Puppies
• OR to search for this term or that term. You can also use | in OR’s place
  • Ex: Dogs OR Puppies
  • Ex: Dogs | Puppies
• - to eliminate a word from your search
  • Ex: Dogs -Cats
    • This will eliminate search results with the word Cats
• * to search for the word with any possible ending (e.g. “ing” or “ed”)
  • Ex: Trace element contamin*
    • This search will include any ending of contamin, including: contaminants, contamination, contaminating, etc.
• Quotations (“”) to search for a complete phrase with no added terms between them
  • Ex: “Ocean surface temperature increase” 
    • This denotes that you would like to search for this full phrase with nothing added between these words

• Parentheses () if searching for more than one keyword or phrase

• Ex: “harbor seals” (contaminants AND health)
  • This search denotes that you would like results with the whole phrase “harbor seals” that include contaminants and health
• Ex: “Ocean surface temperature” (increase | rise)
  • This search means that you would like results about the whole phrase “ocean surface temperature” with either increase or rise

Once you have successfully completed your search, you can refine your results with the bar on the left. In the search below, we specified a publication date range and included patents and citations.

Use Advanced Search to narrow your results even further.

1. Open the left menu bar by clicking on the three lines in the upper lefthand corner then click "Advanced Search"
   
2. In the Advanced Search window adjust the parameters to specify your results