Overview
Citations are an important part of the research process, as they not only credit external texts that have influenced new work, but create a trail that researchers can use to discover relevant, popular, and influential literature within a given area.
Activity: Follow a Citation Trail
Citation trails allow you to find out how often a publication has been cited and find more publications relevant to the topic. Try following a citation trail for a written work using one or more of the resources described on the Citation Trails page:
- Google Scholar includes a “cited by” link for many items on the results list
- Web of Science is a multidisciplinary database that includes links to references and citing articles so you can follow citation trails backwards and forwards.
- UW Libraries Search also includes links to “sources citing” the publication you’re looking at, as well as “sources cited in” the bibliography of the publication. This feature is included in only a subset of articles.
Try setting up a cited reference search alert if you want to monitor the literature for future citations of a publication. Directions are provided on this research guide.
Reflection
- What did you discover following a citation trail?
- Are you seeing similar authors or articles appearing?
- Did you notice significant differences among the three resources that provide the citation trail feature?
- How might you use a citation trail for your own research?
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