Google Scholar @ UCF
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. It is a search engine where you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.
Google Scholar search options from UCF Library.
- Full Text @ UCF links to access sources at UCF Libraries.
- Bibliography (citation) manager options to export and manage citations (RefWorks or EndNote)
Understanding Google Scholar
Pros of Google Scholar
- Eases of use
- Search by cited feature
- Full text available with subscription
- Searches academic websites as well as journal publisher websites, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other websites
Cons of Scholar
- Full text available may not always the final publisher's version
- No limiter for just scholarly publications
- Limited option to limit or narrow search results
- Not everything is indexed in scholar
- Results may include articles of poor quality or even from predatory journals
Free/Open Access Databases
Semantic Scholar - Provides free, AI-driven search and discovery tools, and open resources for the global research community. Semantic Scholar uses natural language and machine learning techniques to “cut through the clutter” and find more relevant results.
NASA Open Data Portal - Focus on data about aeronautics, satellite imagery, space mission telemetry, atmospheric science.
arXiv (Engineering/Physics) – Preprints on emerging engineering, computer science, and physics topics.
OpenAIRE - Provides access to open access research publications, data, and software outputs funded by the EU and other agencies.
PubMed (for biomedical engineering) – Innovations in biomedical devices and healthcare design.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) – Engineering innovations in aerospace and related fields. Technical reports, experimental results, propulsion data.
OSTI Data Explorer - Topics include energy, materials science, engineering.
USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) – Patent searches for existing engineering innovations.