Using the Advanced Search features of Google Scholar, you can restrict your search to specific words, phrases, authors, publications, and publishing timeframes.
To access the advanced search menu, click the three-lined "hamburger" menu in the upper left corner of the Google Scholar search page. From the menu, select Advanced Search:
Now that you have launched the Advanced Search pop-up window, you can limit your results by utilizing one or more of the fields provided:
With all the words:
- This will only return results that have all of the words listed in the search box.
- This is the equivalent of inserting the Boolean operator AND between each term.
With the exact phrase:
- This will only return results the the exact phrase that is entered in the box.
- This kind of search works well for differentiating phrases that could otherwise lead to unwanted results. For example, entering Norfolk State University in this field will only return results that include the exact phrase "Norfolk State University". If the same search was performed not as a phrase in the basic keyword search, the results would include items with results for each word: Norfolk, State, and University.
- This is the equivalent of using " " in most search engines.
With at least one of the words:
- This will return results for any of the words entered in the box.
- This is the equivalent of inserting the Boolean operator OR between each term.
Without these words:
- This will exclude items that include the words entered in this search box.
- This kind of exclusion can be helpful for differentiation. For example, if you are trying to research The Chrysler Museum and want to avoid articles about Chrysler automobiles, you could enter "automobile" in this search box.
- Use caution with exclusion as this type of search does not differentiate between substantive and incidental inclusions of search terms. In the example of The Chrysler Museum and Chrysler automobiles, if the word "automobile" is excluded, no results will show up in the search results that include the word automobile. This could lead to the exclusion of relevant articles, such as one that includes a photograph with a caption that says "automobile parked in front of the Chrysler Museum".
- This is the equivalent of entering the Boolean operator NOT before the search term.
Note that the Advanced Search tool does not respond to the "Articles" / "Case law" button selection that you choose under the search box on the homepage. This means that by default, advanced searches will return scholarly article results. However, after running a search in either "Articles" or "Case law" mode, Google Scholar's advanced search tool will change to the mode most recently used.
What this means is that if you use the advanced search tool from the home page, you will get scholarly article results even if you had selected the "Case law" toggle on the homepage before opening the advanced search tool. However, if you run a search from the homepage with the "Case law" toggle selected and then open the advanced search tool from your results page (or if you return to the homepage), your advanced search results will now show up as case law searches. To get the advanced search to switch back to article search, run a search in article mode or switch modes in the results page as shown in the box below.
Three bars: Discusses cited case at length.
Two bars: Discusses cited case.
One bar: Discusses cited case briefly.