1. Using Google Effectively for Academic Research
EdUHK Library
Mar 2017

2. Outline Google Basic More Google Google Scholar Google Books
Google ≠ Everything you Need
Do we have a Trust Issue Here?

3. Google Basics Upper case or lower case doesn't matter
Word Order, Phrases – put phrases in double quotes; most important words first
kowloon city vs city kowloon vs "kowloon city"
english speakers learning cantonese vs cantonese speakers learning english
Fix spelling errors automatically
acticve learning vs active learning
Exclude some words – use minus sign
adolescents will find a lot of results about the web browser offered by Google; use adolescents -children to remove search results mentioning children
"I'm Feeling Lucky" button
takes users directly to the first search result, e.g. enter "eduhk"
E.g. Put quotation marks around words "[any word]" to search for an exact phrase in an exact order. Keep in mind that searching with quotes might exclude relevant results. For instance, a search for "Alexander Bell" will miss pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

4. Google Advanced Searches
Reserved word: OR
chinese american movies = [chinese] and [american] and [movies]
chinese OR american movies = chinese OR american and movies
Site and domain search
"electronic road pricing" site:gov
"small class teaching" site:gov.hk
"opening hours" site:lib.eduhk.hk
Filetype search
unemployment rate hong kong japan singapore filetype:xls
ipad user guide filetype:pdf
How google works?

5. More on Advanced Search

6. SafeSearch Filters Block explicit results on Google using SafeSearch

7. Cached Links in Search Results

8. More Tricks to Find Quick Answers
Get definitions – define: bystander effect
Calculator – 23*85-20
Conversion
3259 seconds in hours
10km in miles
-10C in F
Foreign Exchange
hkd in cny
100 eur in hkd
Search features:

9. Try it yourself Definition Define cyberbullying
Define supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Finding about Weather
Weather Beijing
Weather Okinawa
Searching a specific file type or a particular types of site:
Google tips filetype:pdf
“academic writing” site:edu.hk
Calculation
23*85-20=
100*3.14-cos(83)=
Get number conversions
100 miles in km
100F in C (Fahrenheit -> Celsius)
Get currency conversions
1206 cny in hkd
6230 eur in hkd
Get the time
Time Tokyo
Time Perth
Time Kazakhstan

10. Search Results Page
Search filters & settings

11. https://support.google.com/maps#topic=3092425

13. Google Image Search
Be careful with Copyright restrictions!

14. Google Image Search
Filter by usage rights, e.g. free to use or share. Why not use
Britannica Image Quest

15. Britannica Image Quest http://www. lib. eduhk. hk/cgi-bin/WAMConnMgr

16. Search by image http://images.google.com

18. Find out where these places are

19. More Google Tricks Wildcard Phrase Search
"Thomas * Edison"
"Tsang * Sing" site:gov.hk
Phrase Search
"classroom management"
"school health education"
More Google tools – translate, images, videos, news, maps … and Google Scholar, Google Books, etc.

20. Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com
Google Scholar allows you to search only the more "academic" / "scholarly" contents of Google – books, journal articles, conference papers, public domain research databases with options suited for academic purposes not offered in standard Google like:
Search by Article Title / Author / Journal Title
Limit by Publication Years / Subject Areas
Citation Searches, Related Articles
Linking to EdUHK Library-Subscribed Online Resources by EdLINK
Direct Export to RefWorks

21. Google Scholar
To look for a specific article, simply enter the article title. If the article title is very general and it does not show up immediately, enclose the article title with double quotes, add the author's name and / or journal title / publication year
E.g. Crisp, V. (2008). Exploring the nature of examiner thinking during the process of examination marking. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(2),

22. If is displayed, it indicates that full text to the article may be available through Library-subscribed databases.

23. Google Scholar
If is displayed, it indicates that full text to the article may be available through Library-subscribed databases.
Without icon, you may still try searching the source title from the Library Catalogue to check whether we have a print version.

24. By default, EdLINK is turned on if you are using Google Scholar from on-campus computers. From off-campus, follow the instruction to turn on EdLINK option via the settings of Google Scholar.

25. Example: Click the EdLINK@EdUHK link to retrieve full text article

26. Google Scholar
Of course, you can also use Google Scholar as a discovery tool and find relevant articles and books related to your research topic. Simply enter the key concepts of your topic with the more important keywords listed first and use double quotes for phrases:
E.g. "inclusive education" elementary schools hong kong
Quick limit options:
Include citations
Anytime / since …. (year)

27. By default: Include citation & patents; anytime

28. Include citations only; since 2016

29. Set Preferences

30. Choose to import the citation(s) to RefWorks, EndNote or others

31. For computers on campus: EdLINK@EdUHK is activated by default.
For computers off campus: search ‘The Education University of Hong Kong’ at ‘Library links’ and activate EdLINK ; then save the settings.

32. Import into RefWorks

33. Cite option below each record

34. Link to all other versions

35. Google Scholar: Cited by and more
Use ‘Cited by’ or ‘Related articles’ to explore more similar articles

36. Advanced search

37. Options in Google Scholar
Advanced Search
Options in Google Scholar
Where my words occur:
Anywhere in the article
In the title of the article

38. Set Search Alert

39. Google Scholar
Author search (author:) – use the surname and initial of the given name and / or Christian name
E.g. teacher education author:"lee jc"
Title search (allintitle:) – restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the document title
E.g. allintitle:"environmental education" effectiveness
Dates (year) – can be a specific year or a range of years
E.g. citizenship education year: 2012 – 2017

40. Google Books

42. Google Books - Full Text Searching
Notwithstanding the legal issues related to Google Books, it is a great research tool in itself
Google not only scans but OCR's the text; obtain full text from its partners  making it possible to easily search for a sentence in the book
E.g. "as the research findings will illustrate, effective inclusive education is about effective teaching and learning and whole-school policies"

44. Google Books
Book come from its Partner Program (copyright holders like publishers, authors granting different levels of permission) and Library Project
May or may not be able to view full text:
Full view
Limited Preview
Snippet View
No Preview Available

45. Advanced Book Search

46. But Google ≠ Everything
There is no free lunch. Google is great but it doesn't own the Web – in particular the research materials and contents that it indexes;
The Library already paid for a lot of e-journals, e-books, e-newspapers so that you can access free online – e.g. compare the Factiva and other free online newspapers; and our Britannica Image Quest
And remember, still not everything is in electronic format or online – check out iSearch – our Intelligent One Stop Searching which includes both Library books, videos, music as well as journal articles
So, if you only rely on Google, you are going to miss a lot.

47. iSearch: Intelligent One-Stop Searching
Looking for scholarly journals from iSearch

48. E-Databases
The Library has more than 250 e-databases of different subject areas:
Academic Search Premier
ERIC
Factiva
ProQuest Databases
Scopus
Social Sciences Citation Index
ACI 學術引用文獻資料庫
CEPS 中文電子期刊服務
CNKI 中國知網
中國學位論文全文數據庫
… and more

49. Other Resources You Should Know
Local ones:
HKUL Digital Initiatives including Hong Kong Journals Online; Hong Kong Government Reports Online ( ); Hong Kong Table of Contents Database; Hong Kong University Theses Online …
CUHK Library Digital Initiative including Hong Kong Literature Database (HKLit); Index to Chinese Periodicals of Hong Kong (HKInChiP); Modern Chinese Literature Research Portal …
Dissertations and Theses Collection (DTC)
HK Public Libraries Digital Collection including the Old HK Newspapers Collection
Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive –

50. Why You Can't Trust Everything You Found on the Internet
Evaluation Criteria:
Who created it? Are they trustworthy? Are they who they say they are? Is it a personal web page or an organizational web page?
When was it created and updated? Click on the related links – how many dead links are there?
What are the target audience? Are there advertising on it?
What is the tone and design of it?
Are the contents objective? Who sponsored it?
Something just doesn't add up? Too good to be true?
Short Reading:
Evaluating Sources in Harvard Guide to Using Sources: A Publication of the Harvard College Writing Program.
How to Evaluate Website Content

51. Thank You!
Q & A