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Display without Delay: Search, Browse & Cite PLOS Articles with Quick Abstracts from Google Scholar

Working off your mobile device? No problem. We just made it easier to use your phone to find and scan PLOS articles.

If you’re someone who’s out in the field more than in the lab, you may have been challenged finding research on the fly. That’s now in the past. To expedite discovery and access to PLOS research articles, we’ve worked with Google Scholar to include PLOS abstracts in their new Quick Abstracts feature. Researchers around the world can now view complete abstracts and explore citations quickly and efficiently from any mobile device. For scientists, educators, policy makers and journalists, this means more efficient and timely access to the academic literature.

How It Works

Google Scholar Quick Abstracts allows researchers to tap on any search result to browse the full abstract text of a PLOS article directly on their cell phone, then either return to the search results or swipe right and left to read additional abstracts. From a link at the bottom of the abstract text, readers are taken directly to the complete article. Quick Abstracts even serves up preprint abstracts from bioRxiv, further extending discoverability of work by authors who opt to post their preprints at time of submission to PLOS journals.

Quick Abstracts includes all the expected features of Google Scholar, including saving to “My Library” through the star button, and display of citing and related articles. Additionally, an entire discovery network is available through use of search strings on the Google Scholar homepage. For example, entering “site:journals.plos.org” in the search bar retrieves abstracts of the entire database of PLOS research articles.

Innovation for All

Research, discovery and knowledge on the go shouldn’t be restricted to technology-driven economies. While the majority of cell phone users in the United States and Europe benefit from 3G, and even 4G, technologies and fast data delivery speeds on their mobile devices, this is not the case globally. Quick Abstracts integrates mobile network optimization that enables abstract display without delay, especially important for communities in the global south browsing and reading journals such as PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Medicine and related research in additional PLOS journals.

Open. Fast. Global.

The adoption of Quick Abstracts is a logical extension of our ongoing relationship with Google Scholar—one based on making research more open and available throughout the global scholarly research community. Our CC BY licensing, Open Access ethos and mobile-ready delivery of journal content enables innovators like Google Scholar to bring their latest technologies to PLOS, for the benefit of our authors and the wider scientific community. Like our partnership with protocols.io for laboratory methods citations and collaboration with bioRxiv for preprints with our journal submissions, this is just one more example of how we’re working with external collaborators to transform research communication.

No more waiting to get back to your desk, lab or laptop to explore a potential new project, prepare for journal club or add to your reference list—head to scholar.google.com from your cell phone for abstract display without delay.

 

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