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Google Scholar - Don't Pay for Articles

This guide will describe how to make a few adjustments to your preferences in Google Scholar to point you to the resources the library provides for the OSU community.

Don't Pay for Articles in Google Scholar!

Google Scholar is a great place to scan across a lot of sources at once, but if it doesn't know that you have rights to access online articles and other sources from a library, it might send you to a page like this - which asks you to pay for the article you want:

Buy Access to Article

The journal in this example is in the OSU Libraries' collection, and OSU students, staff and faculty have the right to access it (and articles in lots of other journals) from any computer with an Internet connection.  With a few adjustments to your preferences, you can tell Google Scholar to point you to the resources that the library provides for the OSU community.

Four Steps to Set Up Your Google Scholar Preferences

Step 1:  To make Google Scholar talk to the OSU Libraries collection, go to the Settings link, located on the top left corner of the page:

Step 2:  Click the gear icon. Depending on your display, this icon may be on the upper right or on the bottom of the settings menu.

 

Step 3:  On the left-hand side of the Scholar Settings page, choose Library links.

Step 4:  Next either search for Oregon State University in the search box or simply use the checkbox next to Oregon State University. Make sure you click Save.

Google Scholar and Find it at OSU

Now, when you do a search, your results list will look like this.  Click on the Find it at OSU link to get to either the full-text of the article or an easy option for requesting the article through interlibrary loan.  Notice that if the article doesn't have a Find it at OSU link, you can click on the More symbol (two arrow-like symbols) to try and Find at OSU.

screenshot of how to locate the find at osu option on Google Scholar

 

Sometimes Google Scholar results do not have the Find it at OSU link. However, if there is a PDF item included in the search result, that will take you directly to a PDF- no OSU access needed.

screenshot of how to access pdfs if there is no Find it at osu link

Accessing Paid Content from Off-campus

Clicking on these Find it at OSU links will now take you to the library's collections.  If you are in the library, or at an IP address recognized as an OSU address, this process will usually be immediate.  If you are not on campus, you will need to prove that you have access to the sources the library has paid for.  You do this by entering your ONID login and password after this sign in prompt:

LDAP login

This process works well, but it doesn't work perfectly.  If there is an article you want, and you can't get it this way, ask a librarian how you can get it.