Researching articles? Try Google Scholar. It lets you search for scholarly work (articles, books, theses, etc) . Here is what is really great, each result:
- links to a list of other articles that cite it (giving you more research leads)
- can be exported to RefWorks or other bibliography manager (export needs to be setup)
- links to related articles
In addition, the results page gives you a link to other articles written by the most relevant authors. Check the Scholar Help page for more information.
None of these features are new. Other databases like JSTOR, MUSE and ERIC (CSA) provide similar features, but I find Scholar to be a more user friendly and faster than other databases for initial research. It also searches across disciplines and databases.
There are some down sides to G-Scholar. The search strings must be very specific or you will get a lot of irrelevant results. You need to switch back to the USF library page to check availability of the article or book. [Some libraries do allow users to find the resource on their site, but it seems USF doesn't have that arrangement at this time]. G-Scholar can’t do category or subject descriptor searches.
Google Scholar is just one more tool to use when conducting research, but it should not be the only tool. Check the Library’s research subject guides for other tools.