DCCL Orientation & Dissertation Workshop

What is cited reference searching?

Cited reference searching allows you to see who cited a published book or article. By looking at footnotes, you can follow research backwards in time to see what sources the author(s) used. Cited reference searching also allows you to take research forward by seeing newer articles that cited the article you are using.

(from http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/WebOfScience)

If you can find the article in Google Scholar (not the full-text - just the citation) often there is a "Cited By" link.

"Put quotes around the title of the article and paste it into Google Scholar. If the article record appears, look for a "cited by" reference followed by a number. This link indicates how many times other researchers have subsequently cited that article since it was first published. This is an excellent strategy for identifying more current, related research on your topic. Finding additional cited by references from your original list of cited by references helps you navigate through the literature and, by so doing, understand the evolution of thought around a particular research problem."

(from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/researchproblem)