I often read works in #LegalScholarship that exhibit ignorance of the considerable scholarship on the same topics in other fields. It’s as if legal scholars are trapped in the #LawReview searches on #Westlaw #Lexis and #HeinOnline. For example, in #LegalWriting #LRW scholarship, I note that scholars fail to check the research on related topics done in fields such as #rhetoric, #composition, #WritingStudies, and #TechnicalCommunication. Even if legal scholarship refers out to such scholarship, it often fails to consider the conversational context in which that scholarship falls: For example, citing or relying a book in another field without reviewing and considering its reception and responses to it within that field. Thing is, it’s not hard to find the connections you want and need for the work to be more integrated by using Google Scholar.
This very poorly recorded video provides my tutorial, designed for legal writing folks but applicable to other areas of legal scholarship, on using Google Scholar. I shared most of the content at the #LWI conference in Washington DC in July 2022. Just now getting around to posting the video. I welcome your comments.
(If you are wondering about the “inter/multi/cross disciplinary” moniker above, you’ll find definitions in this piece by Dr. Kirsten Davis.)
If you want to see other useful videos about using Google Scholar, I recommend these videos from Science Grad School Coach on Youtube:
- How to Use Google Scholar Like A Pro! || A comprehensive guide to using Google Scholar to search. This is a basic video but focused on science research.
- Science Grad School Coach also shows how to find your way to review literature in a new field: How to Find Review Articles and Organize them with Google Scholar and Zotero.
- Because both SGSC and I mention Zotero, I recommend that you review SGSC’s piece on using Zotero, which is free and has great collaboration capabilities: 4 Ways to Import References into Zotero | How to use Zotero Connector and import PDFs in Zotero.