How to Search by Author in Google Scholar

Google Scholar is one of the most reliable platforms for finding scholarly articles, books, conference papers, and academic reports. It indexes millions of publications across all research disciplines, making it a valuable tool for students, academics, and professionals. One of the most efficient features in Google Scholar is the ability to search by author.

Searching by author helps you identify all publications associated with a specific researcher, track their collaborations, and explore how their work has evolved over time. This feature is essential for literature reviews, citation tracking, and academic writing.

This article explains, step by step, how to search by author in Google Scholar, how to refine your results, and how to use author profiles for better research insights.

Why Search by Author in Google Scholar

Knowing how to search by author gives you several advantages.

1. Track a researcher’s publication history.
   You can view all the papers, conference proceedings, and book chapters written by one scholar.

2. Verify the author’s credibility.
   Searching by author helps confirm whether a researcher’s work appears in reputable journals and how often it has been cited.

3. Find related studies and collaborations.
   You can identify co-authors and their research networks, helping you discover related work or potential collaborations.

4. Access full-text resources.
   If your institution is linked to Google Scholar, you can open full-text versions directly from the author’s publication list.

5. Save time.
   Instead of scanning general keyword results, you focus on a specific researcher’s contributions, which is faster and more accurate.

Step 1: Go to Google Scholar

Start by visiting https://scholar.google.com.
You do not need to log in to perform an author search, but signing in with your Google account lets you save searches, create alerts, and access your library.

Step 2: Use the Author Search Operator

The simplest way to find works by a particular author is to use the author search operator. This tells Google Scholar to limit the search to papers written by a specific person.

The format is:
author:"First Last"

For example:

• author:"John Smith"

• author:"Jane Doe"

The quotation marks are important because they tell Google Scholar to match the full name exactly as typed. Without quotes, results might include partial matches or unrelated authors.

This search will display all articles where that author appears in the byline.

Step 3: Combine Author Search with Keywords

You can make your search more specific by combining the author operator with other keywords.

For example:

• author:"John Smith" climate change

• author:"Jane Doe" public health policy

This command shows only the works written by that author related to the specified topic.

Using this method helps you locate a specific study within an author’s entire publication history, especially if they have written on multiple subjects.

Step 4: Use Advanced Search

Google Scholar also provides an Advanced Search option.

1. Click the three-line menu (☰) in the upper-left corner of the Google Scholar homepage.

2. Select Advanced Search.

3. Under Return articles authored by, type the author’s name (for example, John Smith).

4. You can add keywords, publication year, or journal name to narrow results.

5. Click Search to apply the filters.

The Advanced Search menu is useful when you want precision, such as finding all papers by an author published between certain years.

Step 5: Search by Author Profile

Most established researchers maintain a Google Scholar Profile, which groups all their verified publications in one place.

To find an author’s profile:

1. Type the author’s full name in the main search bar.

2. Look at the top results.

3. If the author has a public profile, it will appear above the regular article listings, showing their name, affiliation, and citation metrics.

Click the author’s name to open their profile page. You will see:

• A list of their published works.

• Total citations.

• h-index and i10-index scores.

• Co-authors.

• Research interests.

Author profiles are more reliable than plain name searches because they are verified and managed by the researchers themselves.

Step 6: Check for Name Variations

Some authors publish under different name formats, such as “J. Smith,” “John A. Smith,” or “John Smith.” If your first search does not return the expected results, try different variations.

For example:

• author:"J A Smith"

• author:"John A Smith"

You can also search with partial names combined with affiliation keywords:
author:"Smith" University of Oxford

This helps when there are many authors with the same last name.

Step 7: View Co-authors and Related Work

Once on the author’s profile, scroll down to the Co-authors section on the right-hand side. This shows people who frequently collaborate with the researcher.

Click any co-author’s name to explore their publications as well. This feature helps you map research networks and identify key contributors in a field.

You can also view related articles by clicking the “Related articles” link under each publication in the profile. This shows papers that cite or are similar to the original work.

Step 8: Sort and Filter Results

When viewing search results, you can use the filtering options to refine the list:

• Click Since Year in the left menu to filter by publication date.

• Click Include patents or Include citations to expand or narrow the list.

• Use the Sort by date option to see recent publications first.

These filters help when you want to review the author’s most recent work or track their research progression.

Step 9: Create an Alert for the Author

If you want to stay updated on a researcher’s new publications, you can create an email alert in Google Scholar.

1. Search for the author.

2. On the results page, click the envelope icon (Create alert) in the left-hand panel.

3. Google Scholar will email you whenever new articles by that author are indexed.

This is helpful for supervisors tracking their students’ publications or researchers monitoring developments in a specific field.

Step 10: Save and Organize Author Publications

If you are logged in, you can save individual articles to My Library.
To save a paper, click the star icon under the result.

Inside My Library, you can organize papers by topic, project, or author. This helps you quickly revisit key studies later.

You can also export citations from the author’s profile:

1. Click the Cite button below an article.

2. Choose your preferred citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

3. You can also export to reference managers like EndNote, BibTeX, or Zotero.

Step 11: Verify Author Authenticity

Google Scholar automatically creates author profiles based on public records. Some profiles may be incomplete or duplicated. To verify authenticity:

• Check if the profile lists a verified email ending in the author’s university domain (e.g., @ou.edu).

• Look for consistent research topics.

• Review the author’s affiliation and publication venues.

Verified profiles are more accurate and regularly updated.

Step 12: Combine Author and Citation Searches

You can find who cited an author’s work directly from their profile or through search results.

Below each paper, click Cited by [number] to view all works referencing that publication.
For example, if you click Cited by 350, you will see all 350 papers that mention the original study.

You can also combine both features:
author:"Jane Doe" "Cited by"
to explore citation trends related to a specific researcher.

Step 13: Troubleshooting Common Issues

If your author search is not giving accurate results, try these fixes:

• Double-check the spelling and order of the author’s name.

• Use quotes around the name for exact matches.

• Try the author’s institutional email domain to confirm identity.

• Use filters to narrow results by publication year.

• If the author has a common name, add research keywords (e.g., “John Smith cancer biology”).

Step 14: Use University Access for Full Text

If your university library is linked to Google Scholar, you can access full-text versions of the author’s papers directly.
When searching by author, look for a “Full Text @ [University Name]” link next to the results.
If you are off-campus, log in to your university’s proxy before accessing the articles.

Step 15: Use Author Search for Research Planning

Searching by author is not only for finding papers. It also helps in:

• Identifying potential thesis supervisors or collaborators.

• Building literature review sources by following key researchers in a topic.

• Assessing research trends by analyzing publication years and co-authorship patterns.

By studying how an author’s focus changes over time, you can understand the evolution of their field.

Knowing how to search by author in Google Scholar makes your research process faster and more accurate. Whether you are verifying citations, exploring a professor’s publications, or following experts in your field, author search ensures you gather information directly from credible sources.

You can search using the author operator, Advanced Search, or author profiles. Always use quotation marks for exact matches and verify the author’s email domain for authenticity. Combine author search with keywords, alerts, and citation tracking to get the best results.

Once mastered, author search becomes one of the most powerful tools in Google Scholar for building reliable, comprehensive, and up-to-date research collections.