Google Scholar: Should I use it to find my articles?
Answer
When starting your research, Google Scholar may be useful to begin to get an idea of what’s in "the literature" -- the scholarly writings on a topic.
However, there is an important point to understand.
There is something called a “filter bubble.” That means internet companies (e.g., Google) keep track of your previous internet searches and use algorithms (step by step instructions created by automated reasoning) to personalize your results based upon your past internet activities.
The results that are retrieved are biased: they’re what the internet company (e.g., Google) thinks will interest you more. This seriously limits your results.
Even if you and a UCNJ librarian used the same search terms, the results would not be the same: different number, different order-- different results. This may be okay for general searches but when researching for an assignment where you need careful, detailed, objective, authoritative research on your subject, the consequences could be serious. Mitigate this problem by clearing your cache/history.
The good news: library databases do not filter results based on your past click history. That’s partly why librarians encourage you to use databases!