Why can't I just use Google Scholar to find articles?
Answer
It might be tempting to just do your research on Google Scholar, but there are many good reasons not to.
First, consider that your Google Scholar searches will be impacted by your "Google bubble". Your "Google bubble" is influenced by your previous search history and other personal data, filtering results to what Google thinks might interest you more. Even if you search for the exact same keywords as another person, you will both get a different number and order of results. Reproducibility and transparency are integral components to evidence-based research, which Google Scholar does not allow for. You want to be in the driver's seat when searching, and not relying on the behind-the-scenes algorithms that Google Scholar is applying to your search. For this reason, searching in databases like Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycInfo and others is a better way to control your search.
That being said, it can be helpful to search in Google Scholar when embarking on a research topic to see what is out there in the literature. Google Scholar is also commonly used in grey literature searching for knowledge synthesis projects.