Citation searching is important because it allows you to trace research on a topic over time. It allows you to enter into the "scholarly conversation" about a topic.
- Use the references in the back of an article to look at research that informs the research of an article in-hand.
- Use a citation database such as the Web of Science or the "cited by" link in Google Scholar to find research that was informed by the research of an article in-hand.
In Web of Science:
- use the times cited to trace research forward. Who has used this research to build their own research?
- look at the cited references to trace research backwards. What research did this researcher think was important?
- select related records to find related research based on shared citations. Who is doing similar research?
