Google Scholar is a accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers and dissertations, abstracts, technical reports, other scholarly literature, including court opinions and patents. While Google does not publish the size of Google Scholar's database, scientometric researchers estimated it to contain 389 million documents including articles and patents making it the world's largest academic search engine in January 2018; the size was estimated at 160 million documents as of May 2014. An earlier statistical estimate published in PLOS ONE using a Mark and recapture method estimated 80–90% coverage of all articles published in English with an estimate of 100 million; this estimate determined how many documents were available on the web. Google Scholar has been criticized for not vetting journals and for including predatory journals in its index.

Google Scholar arose out of a discussion between Alex Verstak and Anurag Acharya, both of whom were working on building Google's main web index. Their goal was to "make the world's problem solvers 10% more efficient" by allowing easier and more accurate access to scientific knowledge; this goal is reflected in the Google Scholar's advertising slogan – "Stand on the shoulders of giants" – taken from a quote by holy Bernard of Chartres and is a nod to the scholars who have contributed to their fields over the centuries, providing the foundation for new intellectual achievements. Scholar has gained a range of features over time. In 2006, a citation importing feature was implemented supporting bibliography managers. In 2007, Acharya announced that Google Scholar had started a program to digitize and host journal articles in agreement with their publishers, an effort separate from Google Books, whose scans of older journals do not include the metadata required for identifying specific articles in specific issues.

In 2011, Google removed Scholar from the toolbars on its search pages, making it both less accessible and less discoverable for users not aware of its existence. Around this period, sites with similar features such as CiteSeer and Microsoft Windows Live Academic search were developed; some of these are now defunct. A major enhancement was rolled out in 2012, with the possibility for individual scholars to create personal "Scholar Citations profiles", public author profiles that are editable by authors themselves. Individuals, logging on through a Google account with a bona fide address linked to an academic institution, can now create their own page giving their fields of interest and citations. Google Scholar automatically calculates and displays the individual's total citation count, h-index, i10-index. According to Google, "three quarters of Scholar search results pages show links to the authors' public profiles" as of August 2014. A feature introduced in November 2013 allows logged-in users to save search results into the "Google Scholar library", a personal collection which the user can search separately and organize by tags.

A metrics feature now supports viewing the impact of academic journals, whole fields of science, via the "metrics" button. This reveals the top journals in a field of interest, the articles generating these journal's impact can be accessed. Google Scholar allows users to search for digital or physical copies of articles, whether online or in libraries, it indexes "full-text journal articles, technical reports, theses and other documents, including selected Web pages that are deemed to be'scholarly.'" Because many of Google Scholar's search results link to commercial journal articles, most people will be able to access only an abstract and the citation details of an article, have to pay a fee to access the entire article. The most relevant results for the searched keywords will be listed first, in order of the author's ranking, the number of references that are linked to it and their relevance to other scholarly literature, the ranking of the publication that the journal appears in. Using its "group of" feature, it shows the available links to journal articles.

In the 2005 version, this feature provided a link to both subscription-access versions of an article and to free full-text versions of articles. Since December 2006, it has provided links to both published versions and major open access repositories, but still does not cover those posted on individual faculty web pages. Through its "cited by" feature, Google Scholar provides access to abstracts of articles that have cited the article being viewed, it is this feature in particular that provides the citation indexing only found in CiteSeer and Web of Science. Through its "Related articles" feature, Google Scholar presents a list of related articles, ranked by how similar these articles are to the original result, but taking into account the relevance of each paper. Google Scholar's legal database of US cases is extensive. Users can search and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791.

Google Scholar embeds clickable citation links within the case

Keith Martin Ball FRS FRSE is a mathematician and professor at the University of Warwick. He was scientific director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences from 2010 to 2014. Ball was educated at Berkhamsted School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 1982 and a PhD in 1987 for research supervised by Béla Bollobás. Keith Ball's research is in the fields of functional analysis, high-dimensional and discrete geometry and information theory, he is the author Counting Rabbits, & Other Mathematical Explorations. Ball was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013, his Royal Society citation reads Keith Ball is an exceptionally original mathematician whose work has had a major influence on two branches of mathematics: functional analysis and information theory. He proved the first extension theorems for Lipschitz functions not reducible to one-point extensions and solved the reverse isoperimetric problem.

He produced a sharp version of the Banach-Steinhaus Theorem conjectured in the 50s, proved that infinitely many values of the Riemann function at odd integers are irrational. He answered a fundamental question in information theory by showing that the central limit theorem of probability is driven by an analogue of the second law of thermodynamics. Since 2010 Ball has served as Scientific Director of ICMS in Edinburgh, he successfully popularises science, for example in his book "Strange curves.... "

Alma Dea Morani was a plastic surgeon. She is accepted as being the first female plastic surgeon in the United States and was the first female member accepted into the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. Alma Dea Morani was artistically gifted beginning at a young age. Growing up she was exposed to her fathers work, heavy in religious symbolism. Religious art containing icons and emblems was used to spread the religious messages and teachings at the time. Morani's father, Salvatore Morani, was a sculptor, he was most well known for sculpting surgeons' hands. Morani's love for art, inspired by her father's works, influenced her to pursue a career in plastic surgery. While in her mid teens Morani was an active Girl Scout. Through Girl Scouts Morani learned skills that allowed her to assist and treat minor medical injuries; this experience furthered her interest in medicine. Morani completed her undergraduate education at New York University in 1928, she went on to attend the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Morani graduated with a medical degree from MWCP in 1931 and continued on to complete her residency there in 1935. Morani was the first female resident at WMCP until 1935, she did not start practicing plastic surgery until 1938, at this time she was known for being the first female plastic surgeon in the United States. To further improve her skillset as a surgeon, Morani went on to attend the American College of Surgeons in 1941. After completing her work at the American College of Surgeons, Morani did her fellowship under a well-respected surgeon, Colonel J. Brown. Morani returned to WMCP where she became involved in higher education, she began by giving lectures and worked her way up the ranks to become a full professor over a span of 27 years. Having maintained a strong passion in both surgery and art throughout the course of her life, Morani was successful in incorporating both into her lectures. Morani was politically active. During the war and resources were low; as a philanthropist, Morani raised funds to help keep.

In addition she provided pro-bono care to those serving the country. Politically, Morani was active in speaking out in favor of women's rights. Morani pushed for women to be able to enter the field of medicine as as men. Morani was the first female member accepted into the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. In 1948, Morani founded The Hand Clinic at Women's Medical College Hospital where students were able to get hands-on experience with patients. Morani left a lasting impression on the art community. With her contribution of the Morani Gallery of Art, her work can be seen on display today. A majority of Moranie’s art was inspired by her work in medicine; this is why her Gallery is located inside her alma mater, renamed, The Medical College of Pennsylvania. The Medical College of Pennsylvania is the country's only medical school with an art gallery; the Alma Dea Morani M. D. Renaissance Women Award was created in her name in 2000 to honor women physicians or scientists who made compelling contributions apart from medicine, as well as, facilitating the practice and competency of medicine.

The award is presented in the shape of a surgeons hand to represent both Morani and her father's passion for sculpting. 2000: Alma Dea Morani M. D. FACS 2001: Barbara Barlow M. D. FACS 2002: Carola B. Eisenburg 2003: Mary Ellen Avery M. D. 2004: Christine E. Haycock M. D. FACS 2005: Audrey E. Evans M. D. 2006: Mary Guinan Ph. D. M. D. 2007: Catherine D. DeAngelis M. D. MPH 2008: Ellen R. Gritz Ph. D 2009: Carol C. Nadelson M. D. 2010: Marjorie S. Sirridge M. D. 2011: Rita Charon M. D. Ph. D. 2012: N. Lynn Eckhert M. D. MPH, DrPH 2013: Florence P. Haseltine Ph. D. M. D. 2014: Deborah German M. D. 2015: Mary-Claire King Ph. D. 2016: Paula Johnson M. D. MPH 2017: Elizabeth Blackburn Ph. D. and Carol Greider Ph. D