Using Google Scholar Off Campus

Google Scholar is a powerful research tool that allows you to search for academic articles using a simple, familiar Google search bar.

• Public patron tip: Google Scholar also has a database of opinions from court cases, just choose "Case law" instead of articles under the search bar. This can be a great alternative to using print reporters or Nexis Uni to access case law while the UW Libraries are closed due to COVID-19. UW Students, Faculty, and Staff continue to have access to Nexis Uni off campus via the link on the Gallagher homepage.

Using Google Scholar to access academic articles off campus requires a couple additional steps, however. This is because Google Scholar indexes articles but often does not have access to the full text of the articles. Instead when you click on a search result on Google Scholar, it redirects and relies on databases of articles paid for by Gallagher or UW Libraries. This happens automatically when you are on campus; Google and the subscription databases can tell you are on the UW campus and will automatically direct you to the article in a UW database if available.

When off campus, you need to manually tell Google you are affiliated with UW Libraries. For instructions on how to do that, see this Gallagher Research Hack from last year. If you have a Seattle Public Library account, you can follow the same process to affiliate yourself with SPL.

Once you've successfully added the UW Libraries to the Google Scholar Library links, when searching, you'll see a new option to the right of many of your search results that says "Full-Text @ UW."

Click this link to be redirected to a the article in the UW Libraries catalog. From there login with your netid using the link in the green box if you have not already done so and then access the article by following links to a database under the "View It" heading.

Not all articles are available using a "Full-Text @ UW" link. Unfortunately for legal scholars, this includes articles in some law reviews and legal journals on HeinOnline. To get access to these articles via Google Scholar links, you'll need Husky OnNet, UW's free VPN service for students, faculty, and staff. UW IT has instructions for downloading, installing, and using Husky OnNet. To use Husky OnNet to access library resources, you need to select the "All Internet Traffic" server when connecting.