I’ve found that a searching for ariticles through a major university library is a bit more effective than google scholar. I’m not sure how this varies from school to school, but I go to Iowa State and have had success with their website as well as Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in the past. If you aren’t a student at a major university you typically can still use their search engine though you won’t get access to the articles. However, often if you can at least physically go to a major university library you will have full access while you’re there. This was the case with WUSTL—I was an undergrad at a small school nearby with terrible library resources, so I just went into the city to use WUSTL’s library for any major research projects.
If you’re at a small school you probably have more access than you think through a library loan program—I’ve had a library at a random school somewhere copy an article out of a (relatively obscure) paper journal, send it to Iowa State, who then sent it to me at Chapman University in California where I was for the summer. I was an ISU student at the time, so this isn’t an example of a small school pulling this off, but I’m pretty sure I could have done something similar when in undergrad. The specifics depend on the school you’re at, but it’s worth looking into.
Also, use web of science to do “cited reference searches”—i.e. searching for every article that cited a specific article or author. This can be useful to, e.g., find a newer review article or to see if anyone has addressed the error a paper made. You’ll probably have to go through a large institution to use this without paying a ridiculous sum of money, but as long as you can travel to a big university library (or are a student there), this shouldn’t be a problem.
You can find any university’s library by googling , and somewhere on that page will be their search engine—which searches every service they have a subscription to. For example, Iowa State’s library page has the search box front and center on the main page.
The main point is that you can typically use the search engine as a non-student, but the results will just be the citations instead of the full article. If you want the full articles, you can often just go to the library and use a computer there to get access (true of WUSTL for sure).
As a side note, I think most libraries (at least Iowa State) will tell you if they have the full article in their search results for nonstudents so you can avoid making unnecessary trips.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph, but the reason that I didn’t look myself was that I doubted that I would recognize the search feature when I saw it, because your original description sounded much, much worse than google scholar. Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off. Once you’ve found the article, checking the subscription status before going to campus is useful.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Assuming you select “articles” instead of “all” or “books” in the dropdown menu, this is how it’s always worked for me—admittedly small sample size.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph...
I wan’t trying to be condescending. My time is scarce, and I didn’t want to waste it doing something you could easily do for yourself (though I did meet you halfway and give one link). Please don’t assume that I’m intentionally being mean, especially when I’m offering help.
Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off.
In practice, searching through a university service has found me more relevant results quicker than using google scholar, which is the reason I prefer it. Searching through less items is often a feature rather than a bug when less items means less irrelevant items—which is often the issue I have with google scholar’s results (full disclosure, I don’t use scholar often so it may have improved). The key is that the library subscribes to enough services so that you aren’t really limited in any way—which is at least the case at WUSTL and ISU in my experience.
I have access through the university of washington. However I’ve had bad luck with their search functionality. Sometimes it doesn’t even find a paper when I give it a direct title. Perhaps I could use a different school’s search, though.
I’ll have to try web of science, is it better than google scholar’s citation search?
I haven’t used google scholar’s citation search, to be honest. In some random presentation to stat grad students at Iowa State, they told us about web of science and made that feature sound novel so I assumed nothing else had it.
I’ve found that a searching for ariticles through a major university library is a bit more effective than google scholar. I’m not sure how this varies from school to school, but I go to Iowa State and have had success with their website as well as Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in the past. If you aren’t a student at a major university you typically can still use their search engine though you won’t get access to the articles. However, often if you can at least physically go to a major university library you will have full access while you’re there. This was the case with WUSTL—I was an undergrad at a small school nearby with terrible library resources, so I just went into the city to use WUSTL’s library for any major research projects.
If you’re at a small school you probably have more access than you think through a library loan program—I’ve had a library at a random school somewhere copy an article out of a (relatively obscure) paper journal, send it to Iowa State, who then sent it to me at Chapman University in California where I was for the summer. I was an ISU student at the time, so this isn’t an example of a small school pulling this off, but I’m pretty sure I could have done something similar when in undergrad. The specifics depend on the school you’re at, but it’s worth looking into.
Also, use web of science to do “cited reference searches”—i.e. searching for every article that cited a specific article or author. This can be useful to, e.g., find a newer review article or to see if anyone has addressed the error a paper made. You’ll probably have to go through a large institution to use this without paying a ridiculous sum of money, but as long as you can travel to a big university library (or are a student there), this shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t follow your first paragraph. Could you point to the search engines at ISU and WUStL?
You can find any university’s library by googling , and somewhere on that page will be their search engine—which searches every service they have a subscription to. For example, Iowa State’s library page has the search box front and center on the main page.
The main point is that you can typically use the search engine as a non-student, but the results will just be the citations instead of the full article. If you want the full articles, you can often just go to the library and use a computer there to get access (true of WUSTL for sure).
As a side note, I think most libraries (at least Iowa State) will tell you if they have the full article in their search results for nonstudents so you can avoid making unnecessary trips.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph, but the reason that I didn’t look myself was that I doubted that I would recognize the search feature when I saw it, because your original description sounded much, much worse than google scholar. Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off. Once you’ve found the article, checking the subscription status before going to campus is useful.
Assuming you select “articles” instead of “all” or “books” in the dropdown menu, this is how it’s always worked for me—admittedly small sample size.
I wan’t trying to be condescending. My time is scarce, and I didn’t want to waste it doing something you could easily do for yourself (though I did meet you halfway and give one link). Please don’t assume that I’m intentionally being mean, especially when I’m offering help.
In practice, searching through a university service has found me more relevant results quicker than using google scholar, which is the reason I prefer it. Searching through less items is often a feature rather than a bug when less items means less irrelevant items—which is often the issue I have with google scholar’s results (full disclosure, I don’t use scholar often so it may have improved). The key is that the library subscribes to enough services so that you aren’t really limited in any way—which is at least the case at WUSTL and ISU in my experience.
I have access through the university of washington. However I’ve had bad luck with their search functionality. Sometimes it doesn’t even find a paper when I give it a direct title. Perhaps I could use a different school’s search, though.
I’ll have to try web of science, is it better than google scholar’s citation search?
I haven’t used google scholar’s citation search, to be honest. In some random presentation to stat grad students at Iowa State, they told us about web of science and made that feature sound novel so I assumed nothing else had it.