Google Scholar is a great academic search engine. It is useful for finding scholarly sources, patents, case law, grey literature, and more. It can be a helpful place to start your research, find introductory content, and brainstorm keywords. Though you can use traditional search strategies, Google Scholar tends to require less precision than a traditional article database. However, there are still some tips and tricks you can use to be efficient and effective in your Google Scholar search.
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Use OR between synonyms or keywords, such as: influenza OR Covid-19
Place synonyms between parenthesis, such as: (influenza OR Covid-19) AND spread
Put quotation marks around phrases, such as: "medical education"
Use the filters on the left side of the search page to adjust your search by:
Click on "cited by" underneath the bibliographic information to see other research that cited this source
Click on "related articles" underneath the bibliographic information to find similar articles
Learn more - this will allow you to keep up with recent developments in your area of research