Search Engine Targeted Toward Academic Resources

Summer's almost over; get back into the academic groove at http://www.allacademic.com/ . This search engine catalogs free (only free) academic publications on the Internet.

The search interface looks rather standard but there are a couple of vital differences. Beneath the search box you'll see the words

Search by: Keyword, Author, Publication Title, Article Title

Each of the words after "search by" are clickable and lead to other search interfaces. The page you're on is the keyword search. The Author, Publication Title, etc.. look exactly the same. (It would be nice if this were not the case. Perhaps you'd be less likely to lose track of which search page you were on.) There's also a separate search for MLA citations only.

No matter what search interface you choose, the results are nicely presented. Search results include the name of the paper found, name of publication, publication type and description, and some information about the author. There's also a direct link to the paper itself.

The engine appears to be rather small at the moment, but its hosts are willing to host academic papers which are not yet online (this is a free service.) They also are willing to host journals and convention papers. (This appears to be a paid service.) A nice idea; it'll be interesting to see how/if it grows. Worth a look.

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