Legal Research Basics

Google and Google Scholar

I can just Google, right?!

Searching for information on Google can be quick and effective but will not always find everything you need. Especially when it comes to legal research. The information may be outdated, unreliable or even behind a paywall restricting your access.

Deakin library subscribes to many legal databases that contain quality information sources that you will not find via Google. By searching in a legal database you will retrieve more specific and reliable search results.

So, when is it okay to use Google?

• To find publicly available information, e.g. UN charters and treaties, government information and reports
• For confirming citation or reference details
• To visit homepages for legal publishers (Note: But most legal information is proprietary and 'locked away' in subscriber access only databases)
• Google Scholar can be good for finding academic articles but keep in mind that it has limited ability to search certain law databases.

Is your information credible and reliable?

When accessing information from websites, government websites (.gov) and the websites of universities (.edu) are more credible and reliable than commercial websites (.com).

Personal blogs, online forums and Wikipedia are not authoritative legal sources, though they may give you a basic overview and understanding of a topic, and provide links to more authoritative sources.

For tips on effective web searching, and how to evaluate what you find, have a look at the Library's Skills for Study guide.

Tips for searching the web

You will usually find help pages, FAQs, or guides to searching on individual search engine homepages. But here are some common tips to keep in mind:

• Try to keep your search queries simple
• Carefully choose your keywords, and remember to think about alternate terms that could be used
• If you need to search on a single term, make the term as specific as possible
• Enclose "exact phrases" in quotation marks
• Leave out common words, such as the, and, in and at
• Search tools usually look for word variations, including single and plural terms e.g. Australia will match to Australian, Australia's, Australians etc.
• Use domains to limit your search to material on specific websites, e.g. .gov.au for Australian government sites

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including articles, books, abstracts, theses and American court opinions.

It is often possible to follow FIND IT@DEAKIN links in Google Scholar that will lead you to the full text of an article available through one of the databases Deakin subscribes to.

If you are accessing Google Scholar on campus, this usually happens automatically.

If you are accessing Google Scholar from another location, you will need to adjust the library links settings so Google Scholar recognises that you are from Deakin University.

See the Library's instructions to set up library links in Google Scholar.

Watch the video (8:36) by Michelle Bendall to get a brief overview of why, when and how to make the most of Google for your legal research.