Search engines... the dos and don'ts
The problems with Google searches
Internet search engines can be very useful when looking for quick answers to everyday questions. It can be tempting to head to the same search engines when conducting academic research, however, there are a few reasons why this is not the most reliable or efficient way to search.
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Search engines such as Google scour the entire web, you will be presented with many irrelevant results to filter through
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The search box in Google only allows you to conduct simple searches and there are no extra filters to refine your results
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You will have to look at each result critically to assess if it is credible academic material
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You will be faced with blogs, wikis adverts and false web pages which may be inaccurate and have their own agenda.
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If you do find an academic paper you are interested in you may hit pay walls and have to go through a number of steps to find out if you have institutional access.
All of these obstacles ultimately waste your time, something that you probably don’t have a lot of when facing an assignment deadline.
The problems with Google Scholar searches
Google Scholar aims to limit some of these issues by looking for 'scholarly' information and providing some search filters. Despite this, the service is still not as powerful as the majority of the academic databases available to you and you will continue to get a lot of irrelevant results and face lots of pay walls which can cause you to spend more time than necessary finding the results you need .
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Library search ensures a faster and more concise research process by offering up academic resources and pointing you to access options delivered from your university for both physical and online resources.