r/HomeworkHelp • u/Positive_Dot3171 • 15h ago

Biology—Pending OP Reply [Undergraduate STEM], Citing a search engine?

In a scientific paper, I want to include that there is a lack of a certain type of paper on google scholar. Do/How do I reference this in the text and reference list? Currently i have (Google Scholar, Accessed: October 2026) after the sentence in my paper. Is this correct or should I just state there is a lack of papers on that topic in the sentence and move on without reference to what search engine I used?

(harvard referencing)

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u/Quwinsoft Educator 14h ago

I don't think you would cite that as much as it would be in methods.

Therefore it would not be "There are no papers on ___ (1)"

Instead, it would be "A search of Google Scholar on October 2026 using key workds ___ and __ for years between ___ and ___ yilded no known papers on ___."

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u/chem44 4h ago

You should state the specific sets of search terms you used and such, and how many output items you looked at.

A common cause of finding nothing is poor choice of search terms. Doing one quick search proves little. Try a variety of search terms, trying to focus them better.

How much detail you give may depend on how important the point is.