What is cited reference searching?

Cited references are the articles, books or other materials listed in a bibliography or as works cited in a particular publication. Because citation databases index each reference, it is possible to search these cited references. One can follow a particular cited reference, or cited author, forward in time to find more current articles that have also cited that author or work.

What are impact factors?

 Impact factor for journal X= The number of citations in a given year, to all articles published in journal X for the previous two years, divided by the number of articles in that journal for those previous two years.  

Why use cited reference searching?

• To locate current research based on earlier research
• To find out how many times and where a publication is being cited
• To find out who is citing a particular paper
• To find out how a particular research topic is being used to support other research
• To track the history of a research idea
• To track the research history of a researcher
• To determine how well your own published research is cited for promotion/tenure considerations

Where do I find cited reference searching? 

Cited reference searching is included in the following:

Cited References for Articles

• Scopus (all disciplines; comprehensive)

• Google Scholar (all disciplines; comprehensive)

• Academic Search Complete (all disciplines)​

Cited references for Books

• GoogleScholar

• Scopus (note:  only from 2013 to date)