How do I use Google Scholar? What is the difference between Google Scholar and regular Google search?

Here are the steps to use Google Scholar:

1. Go to the Google Scholar webpage (https://scholar.google.com/).

2. Sign in to your Google account. This will link your use of Google Scholar to your Gmail and other Google accounts.

3. Enter search terms in the search box and click the search button (magnifying glass icon) to pull up results.

4. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar: click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance; click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date; click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email.

5. To access subscription-based articles, link up to 5 libraries (including your college library) by clicking "Settings" at the top center of the Google Scholar webpage, then "Library Links" on the left-hand menu bar. Type in the name of your institution and follow the prompts to log in.

6. Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. However, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Click a library link, e.g., "FindIt@Harvard", to the right of the search result; click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result; click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources; click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

You can also use Google Scholar Button, a browser extension that allows you easily access Google Scholar from any web page . 

Difference between Google Scholar and regular Google search:

Google Scholar is a specialized search engine that indexes scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines, including peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, preprints, abstracts, technical reports, court opinions, and patents. It uses a web crawler to identify files for inclusion in the search results. In contrast, Google search indexes the entire web and provides results based on the relevance of the search terms to the content of web pages. Google's search algorithm ranks and displays results depending on when, where, and how you search, especially if you are signed into your Google account. This personalization can create a filter bubble and a potentially biased set of results . 

In summary, Google Scholar is designed to help users find scholarly literature more efficiently than regular Google search. It is particularly useful for academic research and provides access to subscription-based articles through library links. I hope this helps!