Lazy Scholar Chrome Extension

2 Replies

I got tired of highlight title-> ctrl+c -> open Google Scholar -> ctrl+p -> search every time I want to check if Google Scholar has indexed the full text of a scientific abstract that interests me. So I wrote a Chrome Extension to save some clicks. You can get it at the Chrome Web Store.

Note: it does a lot more than what is listed below now. To see all features, click through to the Chrome Web Store.

It does this so far:

  • Click the icon while browsing an abstract (on pubmed or publisher website) and it will check Google Scholar for the full text and return the link if it finds one. If it doesn’t, it tells you that it isn’t available. If you are using Scholar’s library links, it will provide a link to your institution’s library.
  • There is an optional setting to automatically detect when you load a pubmed abstract in a tab, search Scholar, and open the full text if one is found. You can set whether it is opened in a new tab or in the same tab (right click on the extension icon -> Options). So this reduces the number of clicks to zero!

Please let me know in the comments if you find bugs or have any suggestions!

Here are a couple screenshots of what happens when you click the extension icon (click to enlarge):

Example of full text found.

Example when no full text is found.

  • http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/ aarontay

    “Click the icon while browsing an abstract (on pubmed or publisher website) and it will check Google Scholar for the full text and return the link if it finds one. If it doesn’t, it tells you that it isn’t available. If you are using Scholar’s library links, it will provide a link to your institution’s library.”

    Could you clarify what the last line does? I setup Google Scholar settings to my University – National University of Singapore.

    Would Lazy Scholar be able to scrape the link that was in Find it @ NUSLibraries?

    Say in

    http://scholar.google.com.sg/scholar?q=title%3AImproving+Wikipedia%27s+accuracy%3A+is+edit+age+a+solution&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

    We can see the that there is a library link appearing – Findit@nuslibraries.

    Would LS be able to push us that link on say

    http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1331284?

    I notice in the screenshot above there is a “I noticed you are signed into institutional login. Click here to go there.”

    I can’t see to trigger that? What does that do? Just add proxy?