How do I do a citation search?

What is a citation search?

Citation searching is a way to find relevant research in a field or subject by looking at what an article has referenced and who has referenced that article since it was published. For example, if you find a journal article from 2017, a citation search can show you both the articles it cited and the articles that have cited it since then. This helps you to see how research on the topic has evolved over time.

Why do a citation search?

There are several reasons to do a citation search:

• It can help uncover relevant articles from unexpected disciplines.
• It can indicate how influential a particular idea, theory or study has become. If an article has been cited many times, it suggests it has been widely read and discussed. It could also be widely cited because it is considered controversial.
• It allows you to track an argument or idea over time.
• It helps you find other possible terms to use in your searches.
• It’s useful for putting together a bibliography or list of recommended readings.

How do you do a citation search?

1. Identify a key article: Start by finding a key article, author, or book that you’re studying, or one that is referenced in another article you’re looking at (usually something that has been in publication for at least one or two years). This will be the focus of your search.
2. Find a database with a citation index: Web of Science, Google Scholar, Academic Search Complete, ScienceDirect, and Scopus all include citation indexes.
3. Carry out the citation search: Use the title or author’s name to search for citations in the database.
4. Review the results: The search will provide a list of articles that have cited the same article, author, or book in their own reference lists. These articles likely discuss aspects of the subject you’re interested in.

By doing this, you are building a ‘web of knowledge’ for your topic. You may find useful articles in journals that seem unrelated to your main subject.

Example searches

Web of Science

This example shows how to check if McShea, A., Ramiro-Puig, E., Munro, S.B., Casadesus, G., Castell, M. and Smith, M.A. (2008) 'Clinical benefit and preservation of flavonols in dark chocolate manufacturing', Nutrition Reviews, 66(11), pp. 630–641 is cited in other articles indexed in the Web of Science database:

1. Visit the Web of Science database.
2. Select the Cited References option.
3. Type McShea A* into the 'Cited Author' box. (If an article has more than one author, only enter the name of the first author.)
4. Type NUTR REV into the 'Cited Work' box. (Use the 'AZ' option to find the abbreviated title of a journal.)
5. Type 2008 into the 'Cited Year(s)' box and select 'Search'.
6. A 'Step 2' page will now appear. Select the checkbox beside the record(s) of the article and choose See Results. (A 'Cited References' search will sometimes return more than one record of an article. This will occur, for example, if a citing author has made an error referencing an article, citing the correct author(s), article and journal titles, but incorrect volume, issue or page numbers.)
7. A page will now appear listing records of citing articles. Use the 'Sort by' option to rearrange records by publication date or by the number of times citing articles have in turn been cited in the database.

For a guide to using the database, you can access the Web of Science Platform Training Resources.

Google Scholar

This example shows how to use the Google Scholar search engine to find works citing McShea, A., Ramiro-Puig, E., Munro, S.B., Casadesus, G., Castell, M. and Smith, M.A. (2008) 'Clinical benefit and preservation of flavonols in dark chocolate manufacturing', Nutrition Reviews, 66(11), pp. 630–641.

1. Visit Google Scholar.
2. Search for "clinical benefit and preservation of flavonols in dark chocolate manufacturing" (including double quotation marks).
3. The search will return a record of the article. Follow the Cited by link to find a list of citing items.

You can set up Google Scholar to enable seamless access to journal articles subscribed to by the OU Library. You can find instructions on how to do this, on the Access eresources using Google Scholar page.

Citation searching tips

To get the best out of your citation searches:

• Use multiple databases: Different databases may index different sets of journals and articles, so using more than one can provide a more thorough search.
• Refine your search: Use filters such as publication date, subject area, and document type to narrow down the results to the most relevant citations.
• Stay updated: Some databases allow you to set alerts to get notified about new research on your topic.