Skip to Main Content
Universiteitsbibliotheek – LibGuides

Google Scholar (EN): General information

Introduction to Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a general search engine, containing scholarly articles. It has a large coverage and is very user-friendly. In this LibGuide you will find information about the use of Google Scholar for Utrecht University students.

>> Search Google Scholar (with UBU-link)

Are you a researcher? Check out the information especially for Utrecht University researchers

What will you find in Google Scholar?

Your search results may contain:

  • references to articles
  • references to preprints and working papers
  • references to books (selection from Google Books)
  • rudimentary references ('CITATIONS') to cited articles or books
  • references to patents and legal documents 

Use Google Scholar

  • to find a specific article of which you know the title
  • to find articles on a general topic relatively quickly and easily
  • to also find articles from non-peer reviewed journals
  • to also search for other material like books, theses and conference proceedings

Searching Google Scholar

Google Scholar includes by default all the search terms you use in your search results. This means that you do not have to use the operator AND  (space=AND).

Be aware that Google Scholar does not support truncation (*) but instead uses automatic stemming. This means that when you type in a word Google Scholar will look for this word, plus words with any additional letters on the end of that word. It only works properly with compete words. Searching with 'child' will also retrieve 'children' and 'childish', but 'history' will not find 'historical' or 'historians'.

There are other operators or wildcards that you can (or should) use:

  • search with OR: at least one of the terms must occur. For example: (youth OR teens OR adolescents)
  • search with quotation marks "... ...": exact phrase, terms must occur together and in this exact order. For example: "social media"

On the next page you can find more information on advanced search options. 

From Google Scholar to the full text

There are several ways in Google Scholar to get access to the full text:

Above the description

  • click on the title

In the right hand column:

  • click on the Fulltext@UBUlink or the [PDF] / [DOC] / [HTML] link

Or below the description:

  • use the Full View link or UBUlink, under the >> icon (mouseover: 'more' ) on the blue line with links
  • also try the all x versions link, to find other versions of this article

  • For e-books, use the Library Search option (settings > library links > Open WorldCat-Library Search) to see if the book is available at the Utrecht University Library.

If Google can offer a direct [PDF], [DOC] or [HTML] link to the full text it sometimes does not show the UBU-link at all.

Find out more

Add the UBU-link to Google Scholar yourself (for UU staff and students)

Use Google Scholar with UBU-link. The UBU-link is a quick way to the full text.

No UBU-link next to the articles?

  1. Go (back) to the homepage of Google Scholar
  2. At the top right hand corner you will see a hamburger button
  3. Click on settings
  4. Choose library links
  5. Search on Utrecht University
  6. Tick the following box: Utrecht University Library-Fulltext @UBUlink
  7. Also tick the box: Open WorldCat – Library Search. You can use this option to find books in the nearest library