Basic and advanced searching in Google Scholar
Basic searching
Enter your search query in the search box, then click search.
Search tips:
To search by author name, enter the search string author:name.
Examples: author:cw mcilwraith
To search by title, put the title in quotations.
Example: "Incisional hernias in the horse incidence and predisposing factors"
The order of search terms may yield different relevance sorting of results if you change the order of terms.
Example: the search equine colic louisiana yields results sorted differently than the search louisiana equine colic
Advanced searching
1. To conduct an advanced search in Google Scholar, click on the menu icon at the top left of the screen, then select Advanced search.
2. Advanced search offers four term or phrase search options: "with all the words" returns results that contain all the included search terms; this is a regular Google search; "with the exact phrase" returns results that contain the exact phrase in the exact order searched; "with at least one of the words" returns results that include one or more of the terms searched; "without the words" returns results that do not include the terms in this box. Utilize as many of the search boxes as you wish.
3. Select where to search for the terms, the default advanced search option is anywhere in the article; you can opt to search only in the title of the article by clicking the circle next to that option.
4. Finally, you can search by author, journal name, and date.
Search Options
Google Scholar does allow for the use of the Boolean operators AND, OR, and - (this is the equivalent of a NOT operator in other databases), though results with Boolean operators can be hit or miss.
Boolean operator AND
Use AND to include two or more search terms; results of these Boolean searches will include all the search terms.
Example: the search "patellar luxation" AND dogs yields results that contain both the phrase patellar luxation and the term dogs.
Boolean operator OR
Use OR to find results that include one or the other search term, as well as both search terms.
Example: the search inguinal hernia OR perineal hernia yields results with the terms inguinal hernia, the terms perineal hernia or those with all the terms.
Boolean operator -
Use the symbol - to exclude a term from your search results.
Example: Example: the search "umbilical hernia" -dogs will yield article results with the terms umbilical hernia that do not include the term dogs.
Phrase searching
By placing quotation marks around a phrase, your search results will be limited to those results that include the exact phrase specified in the quotaions. Including quotations in a phrase search will often yield fewer results.
Example: To find articles that include the specific phrase caprine arthritis encephalitis, use the search "caprine arthritis encephalitis". Without quotations, the search yields 8,970 results; with quotations, the search yields 7,630 results.
Parentheses
Use parentheses to compound Boolean searches.
Example: the search (inguinal hernia OR perineal hernia) AND dogs yields article results with the terms inguinal hernia and/or the terms perineal hernia that also contain the term dogs.