Regains the places that it lost last year; up 12 places
Google Scholar provides a simple way to search broadly for scholarly literature.
Website: scholar.google.com
Cost: Free
Availability: Online
Top 100 Tools for Personal & Professional Learning 2019: 27
Top 100 Tools for Workplace Learning 2019: –
Top 100 Tools for Higher Education 2019: 48
Past Overall Rankings
2018: 51. 2017: 40 2016: 60 2015: 43 2014: 28 2013: 35
2012: 52 2011: – 2010: 66 2009: – 2008: 42 2007: 36
Comments from some of those who selected Google Scholar as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2019
“I use this search engine to find research in academic journals. Surprisingly, some of the results are in open journals or can be accessed outside of a firewall.” Connie Malamed, learning experience design consultant, USA http://theelearningcoach.com/reviews/top-ten-tools-in-my-ple/
“There I can find professional information about my university stuff – no “normal” Google stuff like informal newspaper articles or blogs, but just peer reviewed scientific articles and studies.” Student/HR Intern, Germany
“Search for scientific publications” College Professor, Spain
“As a researcher, I find this is an invaluable tool. The fact that you can also access an accurate citation of the sources is also very useful.” Lecturer, UK
“This is an amazing repository with access to published works and peer reviewed journals and is my first port of call for any academic research I am undertaking.” Learning & Development Coordinator, UK
Previous comments
“Great way to start the research process” Anon, New Zealand
“is an index of specifically scholarly publications. Using Google Scholar eliminates the step of sifting through all of the irrelevant and unreliable results in Google’s regular search.” Samuel Gorbold, Online learning facilitator, USA, 2016
“opens a rich world of academic work at the click of a button.” Charles Jennings, Consultant, UK, 2016
“When I’m researching something, Google Scholar is the first port-of-call. A quick search for ‘workplace learning’ on Google Scholar returns almost one-and-a-half million results in less than a tenth of a second. Then that’s the day gone as I sift through relevant papers and find myself ordering books and diving off in all directions, reading and learning as I go. Google Scholar provides the library index and stack we could only dream about 40 years ago.” Charles Jennings, 2015
“When doing research, my first stop is usually Google Scholar. The results provide a list of journal articles and papers, rather than the typical anything-goes search results. Often, the articles are free PDF files from a university or open journal or provided by the author. Other articles must be accessed from an academic database or from a university library. Google Scholar is a valuable resource for finding research-based articles.” Connie Malamed, 2014
“for research” Cameron Bentley 2013
“When wikipedia isn’t enough” Shakir Ahmad 2013
“great research for general and legal articles” Debra Lee 2013
Pre-2013 comments
“I start my literature searches here (citation rating is especially useful) and just wish it was better integrated with the substantial digital library that comes through my university.” Frances Bell
“provides a quick way to perform a surface search of academic literature, and assess peer validation of resources.” Pat Parslow
“with a limited access to a libraries database, this site has offered a wonderful first step toward advanced research” Bill Jackson
“in my mind, Google Scholar has made most library tools obselete. It has really taken reference checking to the next level” Daniel Lemire
“I search through my university’s library with Google Scholar” Joan Vinall-Cox