Keep in mind that Google is not transparent about the journals or time ranges it indexes, and publishers occasionally request that Google Scholar not index their publications. Non-scholarly and/or non-peer reviewed material may also appear in Google Scholar, so it is best used in conjunction with other search tools.

Like other Google search products, Google Scholar starts with a basic search blank. You might need the results of more specific searches - access the Advanced Search via the expansion menu on the left side of the page.

Enter your search terms in the blanks. To search for exact phrases, put your search terms in quotes.

Did you know that you can configure Google Scholar to offer links back to articles you can get through the University Libraries? Changing a few simple settings is all that's needed.

First, go to Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com. Click on the expansion menu in the upper left, then the Settings link that appears in the side panel.

On the page that follows, click on Library links.

Enter University of Rhode Island in the blank and click the search button. You'll then see the options for connecting to URI's Full Text databases. Check all boxes.

Finally, click "Save." The next time you search, you'll be linked back to URI to locate full text of documents.

Sometimes the item you might want doesn't have a full text link. If this happens, there are two things you can try:

1. Click on the All N versions link to see if other versions, such as preprints, might be available
2. Request the item through Interlibrary Loan

Here's an example of the item being available through the All 9 versions link:

And here's what we find on the next page:

In this case, you find PDFs posted elsewhere. If you see a Full-Text @ URI Library link, it will take you to a page where you will find a link to the item. If URI doesn't have access to the item, the option of requesting via Interlibrary Loan is presented in the middle of the linked page.