Google Scholar is powerful & can be used to search for academic articles in our library & book titles. Google Books gives book previews. You may also want the Google Scholar Button browser tool. We recommend that you link Google Scholar to our library to see links.  ​​​​​​​

How to link Google Scholar to Regent Library:  

• Go to Google Scholar
• Open the three-bar menu in the upper left 
• Click "Settings" in the drop-down menu
• Click "Library Links" 
• Search for 'regent university'
• Select the Regent University boxes
• Click "Save" 
   

When you are searching:

• Search for your key words, titles, or authors. Try different combinations.
• Google automatically looks for synonyms & other spellings.
• When you find an article that's in our collection, it will have a link to the article in the right margin 
• You can also try clicking the title of the source to see if it is on the web somewhere, or previewed on Google Books
• For books or articles that don't give a link, you will need to copy the title into Primo to see if we have them or to request them
   

Tips for Using Google Scholar (Special Operators)

• use limits for date of publication if needed
• note that it will tell you the impact of each article (how much it's been cited)
• try enclosing key phrases in quotation marks to zero in on them, like "first amendment" or "attachment theory"
• try synonyms & similar terms; use the word OR between them, like college OR university 
• use the minus symbol to exclude unrelated words, like Abraham -Lincoln (if you want Abraham from the Bible)
• use the word AROUND to indicate words should be near each other in the results, like Covid AROUND lockdown
• Use an asterisk star * to take the place of missing or unknown words in a phrase
• Try Search site: thenyourkeywords (no spaces)--if looking for a website title.
• Try Search intext: then key words--if looking for it in the text of the website, not the title.
• You do not need to use AND or parentheses with Google
• Also, note that even if you don't use OR, it will treat the various terms as options--you can enter a lot of terms
• You don't need to use an asterisk at the end of a word to bring up different word endings as Google does that already
  
  Great Uses for Google: You can find background information or basic terminology on your topic through regular Google, as well as religious websites, free archives, classic e-books, newspaper & magazine articles, think tanks, open-access journals, and government sources. Remember to use discernment as not everything is credible.

 NVivo

NVivo is qualitative analysis software for which Regent University has a limited number of seats. If you would like to access NVivo, you will need to be sponsored by a professor.

To start this process, please email ITHelpdesk at helpdesk@regent.edu and cc the professor who is sponsoring your access request.

RefWorks can create an instant bibliography for you in APA, Chicago, Turabian, or MLA, & more!.  It can also organize your sources into folders based on a certain paper, topic, or course. 

Just click "RW" next to any source in our Primo search to send it to RefWorks! Then go to RefWorks, click "Import," go to "Last Imported," select the sources you are using, and click "Create Bibliography"!

To create a RefWorks account: Enter your Regent email as your username and associate it with our Institution through OpenAthens login to create an account! If it asks you to look up institution, look up and choose Regent University Library. You can take your account with you when you graduate. The Regent Library provides free access to our students, faculty, and staff, so don't miss out on this valuable tool!
 

It is recommended that you use RefWorks, a Regent-provided free account that stores your sources and forms bibliographies in your format. You can also export sources from Primo to RefWorks. Here are some other options: