Citation searching is a great way to expand your results after you've performed a database search. It's especially helpful if you're struggling to find articles on a topic that is newer, just growing in popularity, or that has little published scholarship.
Citation searching refers to using citations linked to relevant articles you've already identified to locate additional articles related to a research topic. It involves two approaches:
Access the full-text PDF of an article that is on your topic and that you'd like to use for your assignment. Scroll to the end of the PDF and look for its bibliography or reference list. Review the titles of the articles in the list to see if there is anything that seems relevant. Look them up in LibrarySearch if you'd like to review their abstracts for more information.
Enter the title of a relevant article into the search box in the Web of Science database. In the field menu beside the search box, select Title.
On the search results page, look for the References link for the corresponding article. Clicking on it will show the list of sources that were cited within the initial article (in other words, that are included in its reference list or bibliography).
Search for the title of a relevant article you've already identified into the Google Scholar search box.
On the search results page, look for the "cited by" link under the article's abstract. Click on the "cited by" link to view a list of articles that have cited the initial article and included it in their reference lists.
Enter the title of a relevant article into the search box in the Web of Science database. In the field menu beside the search box, select Title.
On the search results page, look for the Citations link for the corresponding article. Clicking on it will show the list of sources that have cited the initial article.
