Every so often I come across something that I think is just awesome and really useful. Google Scholar knocked my little (ok size 11) socks right off.

Introduction

Google Scholar provides a really simple way to search for articles, themes, books, abstracts and even court opinions. It includes content from publishers, professional societies, universities and other websites and helps you find work across the vast world of scholarly research.

If you're looking for something really simple to use with an enormous range of content Google Scholar is the place for you. Options include exploring related works, citations, authors and publications and it is a brilliant way of keeping up to date with recent developments in the area of research you're interested in. Articles are included between 2010 and 2014, inclusive.

My Library

Once you have found the resource that you're looking for you can save articles right off the search page, organise them by topic and use the power of Scholar to search quickly to relocate resources as you need them.

You decide what goes in your Library and Scholar keeps the links up to date.

Alerts

Scholar lets you sign up for alerts so that at any point that a new article becomes available related to your search criteria and research Scholar will notify you by email so you're always right up to date.

Getting Started

Getting started couldn't be simpler; go to Google Scholar and if you already have a Google account you can get straight in there.