LibGuides: COMP 100: Young: Searching Google for Scholarly and Popular Sources

Using Google to Find News and Other Sources

The Site: Command

You can use the site: command in Google to search within a particular website or domain.

The search below will locate anything on the Vox website on the topic of slavery.

You can add any website or domain to the end of the site: search operator. You could try:

site:nytimes.com - will find anything on the New York Times website
site:edu - will find anything on an .edu website
site:gov - will find anything on a .gov website. This includes materials on loc.gov (the library of congress website), archives.gov, or nps.gov (national parks service - the national parks service includes includes a number of sites that interpret America's slaveholding past

Evaluating Sources

CARS

CARS is a checklist for evaluating websites

C - Credibility

Is the creator/author named? What is their job? Are they a researcher, journalist, or something else?

A - Accuracy

Is the website free of spelling errors, grammatical errors, dead links, or other problems?
Does the article have a publication date? Does the publication date align with the requirements for your assignment?

R- Reasonableness

Who created the website?
Does the website avoid advertising that does not seem appropriate?

S - Support

Is there a bibliography or sources listed? In journalistic content this can look like naming sources and hyperlinks.
Where do the hyperlinks on the site lead? Are they mostly circular and link back to pages on the same site or do they link to outside sources?

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be a great resource for finding additional scholarly research articles!

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search for scholarly journal articles within this search engine. Go to "Scholar Preferences" and enter Framingham State University as your preferred library in the "library links" section. You will see a result for Framingham State University. Select "Find it @Framingham State". Once you do this, you will be able to search and find full-text articles from our library.

Adding the Full-Text Finder to Google Scholar

Google Scholar Tips

Getting Weird Results? Make sure you are searching for scholarly articles

Google Scholar recently added the ability to search case law. If you are getting weird looking results, make sure you have the "articles" button selected.

Cited by: A great feature!

If you have an article that interests you, try searching for it in Google Scholar to see if it has been cited by anyone. This can be a really great way to find additional scholarly articles on your topic. Just click the "cited by" link under the article description. If you don't see the "cited by" link, it may mean your article is too recent.