Google Scholar vs. Academic Databases

If you have the question “Why can’t I just use Google Scholar?” the answer is “You can, however…” Google Scholar can be very handy. It’s got a layout you’re familiar with, you don’t have to log in, it usually gives you access to part of most things it pulls up.

 Academic Databases make you sign in, so many of them look so different you spend half the time trying to figure out how to search it, and if you forget to mark the full text box you can wind up only getting abstracts.

 So why are Academic Databases better for your research?

Google Scholar almost always makes you pay for full text. The library pays for you to have access to many thousands of articles in the academic databases so you don’t have to, and there are also tons of FREE full text articles.

 Academic databases pull articles and other content from far more sources than Google Scholar does and you can filter them by various different factors, like if it’s been peer reviewed.

Want to read more about this? Here is an article you can find in our databases