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RESEARCH GUIDES

COMM 307: Quantitative Methods in Communication

Learn how to find research studies for your literature review.

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Link Google Scholar to Library Databases

To get started, connect Google Scholar to the University of Maryland Libraries website. This way, Google Scholar will link you directly to articles the library subscribes to. Here’s how:

  1. Go to Google Scholar.
  2. Select the menu icon at the top left: Scholar Hamburger
  3. Select Scholar Settings
  4. Select Library links from the left sidebar.
  5. Search University of Maryland Libraries in the search box.
  6. Select University of Maryland Libraries - Find @ UMD from the options that appear (make sure to click the checkbox).
  7. Select Save. Google Scholar will now recognize you as a UMD student on this computer/browser.

How To Use Google Scholar

Find an Article From a Citation

  1. Copy and paste the title of an article into the Google Scholar search box.
  2. Locate the article in the results.
  3. Select any of the links on the right side of the result to open a full-text version.
  4. No full-text version? Place a request for the article (it's easy!).

Screenshot of an article result in Google Scholar

Find Articles That Have Cited Yours

The Cited by function will show the research that has cited a given article. This is especially useful for literature reviews! Select the Cited by link below a search result to view the list.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search result with the Cited By link highlighted

Cite Articles

Google Scholar generates citations for articles in different formats. To get a citation:

  1. Select the Scholar Cite Cite link below the article result.
  2. Copy and paste the citation in the style you're using.
  3. Make sure to double-check and edit the citation as needed! It will likely have formatting errors.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search result with Cite link highlighted

Find Research by Author

Many researchers have Google Scholar profiles that list their institutional affiliations and publications, like this example. Click any underlined author's name in your article search result.

Screenshot of a Google Scholar search result with an underlined author's name highlighted

Alternatively, you can search by name with the author search function: author:"safiya noble" or author:"s noble". This option also works for authors who don't have a Google Scholar profile.

Keyword Searching

Google Scholar doesn't always work as well for complex keyword searches, but you can search "strings" of keywords and try including some simple Boolean, like these examples:

social media youth advertising clickthrough
teenager (instagram OR tiktok)