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UCQ

Article, Journal, & Database Searching

Finding Library Resources

What is citation searching?

Some databases helps you look up an article cited or used by a selected article. This is the concept of citation searching -- from a key article, search to see when and where it has been used.

For example

Jemal, A., Murray, T., Samuels, A., Ghafoor, A., Ward, E., & Thun, M. J. (2003). Cancer statistics, 2003. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 53(1), 5-26. Since 2003, it has been cited 18,184 times at least, including 241 times already in mid-2018.

Why citation searching?

  • to see the recent article(s) that has cited the article of your interest.
  • to notice the discipline or other study area(s) in which the article of interest has been cited
  • to find a more recent occurrence of the article of interest to use in an assignment that requires articles from the last five years, for instance.

Where to begin?

The following databases are the easiest to use. (Note: the number of citations will vary depending on the journals available through the choices below). If you want to check the accuracy, look at the article's references and the reliability of the journal (that contains the article, which is not covered here):

  • Click on the database name. The web of science includes Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index. This is the primary resource for citation searching in all disciplines.
  • In the search box, type the article title, and choose "title" to focus your search (by clicking on drop down menu beside the search box).
  • Locate the reference of interest, if in the list. On the right hand side of the title, notice the Times Cited. Click on the number, to see the articles that have cited the article of interest.
  • Choose various ways to sort the citations from the options provided through the "Sort by" box at the top of the page.
  • Once on the Google Scholar page, in the search box, type the article title. If the article of interest does NOT appear in the first page of results, place quotes around the title for a focused search.
  • Locate the reference of interest, if in the list.
  • Under the citation, click on the Cited by link and a number.
  • Choose the year of interest, on the left side under the category entitled "Any time" to locate recent articles.

If you have any questions about the details above, drop in at  the Learning Commons or contact the UCQ Learning Commons.