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Google Research Made Easy: Google Scholar

Google Scholar Preferences

Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful.  You need a Google account to use some of these features.  To make Google display links to full text of articles that Berkeley subscribes to: Open Scholar and click on the3 bar menu, also called the "hamburger" menu in the upper corner, then click Settings, then click Library Links. Once in Library Links, enter the word Berkeley and click search (if you are connected to the internet via the campus, Google Scholar will have the correct boxes selected for you).  In the list of options that appears, check the boxes for

  • Open WorldCat - Library Search
  • University of California Berkeley - Get it at UC
  • University of California Berkeley - ProQuest FullText 

If you see UC e-links, ignore this as it will go away by Nov 2021.  Click save and then you can start searching.

My Citations in Google Scholar

You can track who has cited your work in Google Scholar.  You'll need a Google Account to do so. 

Click on My Citations near the top of the Google Scholar home page (or in the right corner of a search results screen).  Fill out the biographical information.  Google Scholar will look for your work within the databases.  Sometimes this is successful, sometimes it is not.  You can also upload your citations to the product.

Once you have set this up, Google Scholar will email you when it finds that your work has been cited.

Set up Alerts in Google Scholar

Google Scholar can save your search and email you when new items appear in your search.  You need a Google account to use this features. Do your search in Google Scholar.  At the bottom of the search screen, or on the left side of the screen, look for the envelop icon for create alert:  and click it.  Fill out the form and new items will be sent to your email account as they are found by Google Scholar.

Who else cited this?

Ever wanted to trace an article or book’s impact?  Try searching within citing articles.

Do a search in Google Scholar. In the results, you can click on the "Cited by" link under the citation.


On the next screen, you can select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox and refine your search only within those titles that also cited what you are interested in.