Google Scholar celebrates two decades of breaking down barriers to academic research and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Found an interesting paper and don’t have time to read it right now? Today we are adding a reading list to your Scholar Library to help you save papers and read them later.
You can also use it to save papers you find off-campus but want to read on-campus where you have access to the full text, or papers you find on your smartphone but want to read on a larger screen.
To add a paper to your reading list, click “Save” and add the “Reading list” label. To use this feature, you need to be signed in to your Google account.
To get to your reading list, click “My library”:
…and select “Reading list” in the sidebar.
To read the paper, click the [PDF] or [HTML] link next to its title.
After reading a paper, click "Archive" or "Delete" to remove it from your reading list. Archived papers are kept in your library for later reference; deleted papers are removed from your library.
Now you can gather papers as you go, block off a good chunk of time, and dig into the details.
Posted by: Danni Chen, Kyu Jin Hwang, and Alex Verstak
Scholar Button, released in 2015, provides easy access to Google Scholar from any webpage. You can use it to find fulltext on the web or in your university library, format references in widely used citation styles, repeat a web search in Scholar, or simply look up a reference to a paper.
We're releasing an update with several new features. The window that opens when you click Scholar Button used to look like this:
We added a "Save" star and moved the "Cite" button next to it, and added history navigation buttons to the bottom toolbar:
You can now save the article to read later - click the small blue star under the article to save it, or the big gray star at the bottom to see all saved articles in your Scholar library. The article is saved in your most recently accessed Scholar account; to use a different one, click the account photo in the upper right.
We've also added a back button! You can now easily undo query refinements that didn't work out, and even recover the window after you close it - just open it again and click back. Your Scholar Button history is stored locally in your browser for an hour; click the account photo in the upper right to clear it right away.
Finally, we have improved how Scholar Button identifies the webpage you're reading. Clicking the button while reading a PDF article should now find the article in Scholar, so you can cite it, save it, or explore related articles. If Scholar Button doesn't find the right article, please select its title on the webpage.
Scholar Button is currently available for Chrome and Firefox.
Posted by Belinda Shi, Kyu Jin Hwang, and Alex Verstak.
Today, we are making it easier to use your phone to find and scan scholarly articles. Clicking a Scholar search result on your phone now opens a quick preview:
You can swipe left and right to quickly flip through the list of results. Where available, you can read abstracts. Or explore related and citing articles, which appear at the bottom of the preview along with other familiar Scholar features.
When you find an interesting article, you can click through to read it immediately, or you can tap the star icon to save it for later in your Scholar library. You'll need to sign in to the same Google account on both the phone and the laptop to use this feature. This lets you find and save papers on your phone wherever you are. Once you get home, you can grab a cup of coffee and click "My library" on your laptop to get to your reading list.
Quick previews are available in Chrome, Safari, Samsung, and other standard browsers on recent Android and Apple phones. Sorry, they won't work in Opera Mini or other special-purpose browsers; and they are not, at this time, available on tablets.
We would like to thank our partners in scholarly publishing that have worked with us on this. Working together, we hope to help make research more efficient everywhere.
Posted by: Alex Verstak, Software Engineer
If you thought Google Scholar had about twenty different screens, you'd be half right. We have just made it easier to find your way around them.
Settings, advanced search, case law, and "my library" moved into the side drawer, which is now present on all screen sizes and all devices. If you're wondering how to get to a Scholar feature that you don't immediately see, it's probably in the drawer; click the menu icon in the upper left of the screen to open it.
"Cite" and "save" options under each search result moved to the left and became icons. The quote icon shows formatted citations in a variety of styles - MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, - and links to export the citation to EndNote and other bibliography managers. The star icon saves the search result to your personal library, so you can read or cite it later. To review your saved articles, open the drawer and click "my library".
Author profile pages got a cleaner look, especially on mobile devices. Rest assured, we did not change your citation counts - at least, not intentionally. It is, however, a good time to review your photo - it's now a circle - and to update your affiliation and research interests. Please visit your profile to review and update it.
Posted by: Alex Verstak, Software Engineer
We've recently been experimenting with a new modern look for Scholar search results. Many of you have already tried the new look and have offered valuable suggestions, which we've done our best to incorporate. Thank you for your time and patience!
It is time - gulp! - to launch the new modern look of our search pages and retire the old venerable look that has served researchers worldwide since our first release in 2004. Tried and true as the old look might be, it's time for a refresh.
The new modern look brings you improved aesthetics and easier access to frequently used search features. You can now search for recent papers with a single click in the sidebar. You can access advanced search features (for example: search by author) without leaving the search results page by clicking the arrow in the right of the search box.
Here's a quick overview of the changes:
We've made several adjustments based on feedback from the legal search user survey earlier this year. You can limit your search to specific jurisdictions by clicking in the sidebar of the search results page instead of navigating through advanced search. You can print legal cases in a cleaner, more streamlined format using the "Print" option in your browser.
We've also clarified the preferences, err, settings page by organizing it into sections, performed a minor facelift on pages that deal with configuration of email alerts, and next we'll be working on updating the author profile pages and help pages.
As announced last summer, we're unable to continue supporting older and infrequently used versions of Firefox (<3.6) and Internet Explorer (<7). If you're using an unsupported browser, we recommend updating your browser.
If you don't like our new modern look, or simply prefer to wait a little longer before switching, you can temporarily revert to the old venerable look. Please take a moment to let us know why the new modern look didn't work for you. We appreciate your time and value your feedback.
If you're wondering why you're still seeing the old look, that's probably because we're gradually rolling out the new look to all users. But you don't have to wait. You can beat the crowds and upgrade right away.
Posted by: Alex Verstak, Software Engineer