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Special Access Resources (NYT/WSJ): Google Scholar

How to get access to the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Google Scholar.

Introduction to Google Scholar

Google Scholar has broad coverage of scholarly literature. It can be used to search for:

  • Journal articles
  • Theses
  • Government reports
  • Content of university and subject repositories
  • Some grey literature

It can be particularly useful for establishing an overview of a topic, or researching multidisciplinary topics that might be difficult to research in traditional disciplinary databases.

Google Scholar does have some down sides:

  • The exact coverage and scope is unknown ― we can't find out which journals, books, etc., are being searched
  • There is no way to differentiate peer-reviewed articles
  • Data may be incorrect or missing
  • Sometimes the citations are incorrect or wrong
  • There is no way to use subject headings or more sophisticated search strategies

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use it, just make sure to tune up your skeptical radar and be careful.

Google Scholar

You can connect Google Scholar to the UMass Global Library. This automatically links your search results in Google Scholar to the full-text of research material provided to you by the UMass Global Library through our paid subscriptions.

Although Google Scholar is a convenient tool, you should also check out UMass Global Library's Databases. If you rely solely on Google Scholar, you may miss important resources (especially recently published items), or be asked to pay for material that you could get for free through UMass Global, and have fewer options for refining your search.

To add UMass Global Library links, first access Google Scholar and log in:

 

  • Go to Google Scholar
  • Log on or create an account
  • Once you are logged in, click the Menu Bar
  • Click Settings

Next, add the UMass Global Library:

  • Click Library Links.
  • Type "University of Massachusetts Global" in the search box and click the search button or press Enter.
  • Click the check box next to "University of Massachusetts - Global - Access at UMass Global" and then click Save.

 

Now, when you search in Google Scholar, you should see UMass Global access links, as in this example:


 

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0