Web searching

Google and other search engines personalise results depending on your search history, preferences, and websites visited. This is the default setting in Google.

According to the documentation Google released at the time of launch, Verbatim mode disables personalised search and uses your exact words, but will not auto correct spelling or find synonyms. It does not disable localised search which recognises your physical location. Based on this release information, you could use use Verbatim mode when you do not want your search to be invisibly altered. Now, Google help simply states 'Verbatim: Search for exact words or phrases'.

Run your search then select:  Search tools > All results > Verbatim

• Often it will not be possible to screen all results from search engines due to large numbers of results being returned. Predetermine the number of results you are going to screen for each line of search and report this e.g. Screened first 100 results
• Turn off continuous scroll in Google to enable pages of 10 results to load at a time. This makes it easier to keep track of which results you have recorded. To do this:

Access the settings via the cog icon at the top of the screen:

From the Search settings menu, click on More settings, and then Other settings:

Under Desktop, toggle off Continuous scroll:

You will need to start a new Google search session to enact the change in settings.

Now when you run a search, 10 results will load at a time. Scroll to the end of the page and click on More results to load the next page. 

Is Google Scholar grey? Google Scholar refers to grey literature in the broad sense of information found outside the recognised databases. It primarily searches academic papers so results are not necessarily grey literature. Results can include:

• journal and conference papers
• theses and dissertations
• academic books
• preprints
• abstracts
• technical reports
• patents; and
• court opinions

Works are from academic publishers, professional societies and university repositories, as well as scholarly articles available anywhere across the web. Many government documents are indexed from the publisher site not the government site.

In Google Scholar, you may export references one by one by selecting   and choosing your reference management software (e.g. EndNote).

However, if you wish to export multiple references, there is a more efficient way:

• log in to your Google account
• in Google Scholar settings, change Results per page to 20 results per page (maximum allowed)
   
• select Save, or the star icon to add references to My library one at a time
• choose to add a Label to the reference or select Done, close the pop-up, or click outside the pop-up to save the reference - Labels can be added later, within My library
  
• go to My library
• select the Export all button 
• you can export a page or all articles from My library
  
• choose your reference management software