1. Go to the Google Scholar site:
2. Click on the Scholar Preferences link in the upper right.
3. In the field next to Library Links, type in "Stony Brook University", then click the Find Library button.
4. Check the checkbox next to the text "Stony Brook University - SUNY - Fulltext @ Stony Brook" that appears below.
5. Click the Save Preferences button in the lower right.
6. You will be returned to the Google Scholar main seach page where you can enter a query.
Google Scholar will return a list of papers that match your query. By default they are sorted by the number of citations for the paper, with the most cited papers at the top of the list. It is generally believed that the more citations a paper has, the more authoritative it is.
In the right column links to the paper will appear if the author has made it available, or if SBU has a subscription to the journal that published the paper. If no links appear to the right, then you will only be able to see an abstract or excerpt of the paper by clicking on its title.
7. For papers that SBU has access to, you will be prompted to input your netID and password. You will then be able to view the paper's abstract and download a full text version of it.
8. In most cases you will also be able to click a link that will provide you with the proper citation for the article in various formats such as APA and MLA. The ACM format we adhere to uses Chicago Style Author Date formatting for citations.
Most search engines default to Boolean AND logic. To create a search that will retrieve Web pages containing all of your search terms, type the words with a space in between them.
Example: bears hibernationUse a plus sign (+) to further focus a Boolean AND search. On Google, for example, use of the plus sign will turn off the feature that may include a search for synonyms of your search terms. On other search engines, the plus sign is a kind of insurance that AND logic will be applied.
Example: +desert +horticultureInclude synonyms or alternate spellings in your search statements and connect these words with Boolean OR logic. OR logic will allow you to retrieve documents containing one or more of your search terms. Search engines are not consistent in the way they want an OR search to be typed out (for example, Google requires that OR be capitalized), so it's usually best to fill out the form on the advanced search page and let the search engine do the rest.
Example: college OR universityFor a Boolean NOT search, place a minus sign (-) in front of the word you want to exclude from your search results.
Example: apple -computerIf you are looking for an exact phrase, surround that phrase with quotation marks.
Example: "freedom of the press"Use the advanced search page when you want to do a focused search. The advanced search page is a good way to limit your results in various ways, including words in the title, date, language, file type, site, etc. The advanced search page is great to try out because it shows you the types of searches the search engine can do for you.
Experiment with different search engines. No two search engines retrieve results from the same index or return identical results. For example, try search engines that display results organized by concept, or search engines that search multiple engines simultaneously. Check out this list of search engines.
Take advantage of capitalization if the search engine is case sensitive. (Google is not case sensitive.)
Thanks to Laura B. Cohen for the tips on conducting efficient searches.