Google Scholar and Paywalls
How to Use Google Scholar
Many times professors tell their students that they must use "scholarly" or "peer reviewed" journal articles. This, of course, means that not just any website will do. Your best bet to find these articles is to go to your college library databases and search there because they have paid for access to articles that you cannot get for free from the open web. You will get more information on using library databases in our next module. For now, let's see what we can find for free on the web. To search for academic articles on the open web your best bet is to use "Google Scholar Links to an external site.".
Below is a 4 minute and 32 second video that will walk you through how to find Google Scholar and how to use it to get full text articles for free.
If you watched carefully you may have noticed in the video that not all of the articles were available, in full text, for free. When you click on many results the system will ask for money to gain access to the article, this is called a paywall and it may look something like this:
Trust us when we say that it is much easier to find scholarly and peer reviewed articles in your college library databases. Want more information on how to use those sources? That's in our next module, but wait! First test your knowledge of this module with the short quiz, just click the next button, no pressure, no points, just a way to prove to yourself that you've got this!
Citations & Attributions
Video source: "How to Use Google Scholar Links to an external site." from the Helpful Professor Links to an external site. on You Tube Links to an external site.
Except where otherwise noted, the content in this module by San Diego Mesa College Library Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY SA 4.0