Google Scholar: How to Re-Sort Results by Date

You may have noticed that when you run a search in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com), the top result is NOT necessarily the most recent publication on your search topic.

As with any result of a regular Google search, the top listing is the most linked-to page on the Internet on your topic. Thus, the top result is based more on popularity on the Web rather than on accuracy or complete relevance to your original search.

It's quite straight-forward on how to re-sort your Google Scholar results. In the light-green bar above your Google Scholar search results, select the arrow next to the "anytime" box. Choose the date you'd like the results to go back to.

To make sure you have a much more thorough list of results, make sure to search a complimentary database, such as PubMed, that always ranks its results by most relevant and most recent at the top.

PubMed Quick Tip #14: Creating a Permanent Link to Search Results

Let's say you want to generate a URL to get you straight to a set of PubMed results from a search you ran. Why would this be useful?

- Instead of telling someone to copy and paste a search phrase you searched in PubMed, you can provide them a direct link to the results

- You want to have a link, to say all the papers you've published that are in PubMed, available on a personal or departmental website

Here's how you can create a permanent link to your PubMed results:

(1) Run your search in PubMed

(2) On the results page, scroll down to the lower part of the right-hand margin, and select the See more... link under the Search details section

(3) Select the URL button

(4) Copy and paste the URL that appears at the top of your browser screen

EXTRA TIP:
Since the URL generated is rather long, you can shorten it, if you like, before you send it to someone, by using a tool that will generate a shorter URL (for example tinyurl.com)