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The Pros & Cons of Google Scholar
Pros
- Searches scholarly articles, books, conference papers and other materials all in one search
- Can be linked with libraries
- Links directly to Google Books
- Links directly to cited or citing articles
- Interdisciplinary
- Good replacement for when there is no access to scholarly sources
Cons
- May not be current or comprehensive
- Less precise than academic databases
- Does not search beyond a pay wall
- May not cover older publications, particularly those not published electronically. (If it is not on the Internet Google cannot find it).
- Many records only available as summary / abstract
- Results ranked by algorithm which favors frequently-cited references.
- Bias towards older references.
- Updates to existing records take 6-9 months to a year or longer.