PSYC 201: Experimentation and Statistics: Citation Searching

Looking at the works cited by an author is called backward citation searching. The author's bibliography gives you a snapshot of the thinking and research available at the time of publication. It tells you what ideas or theories have influenced the author.

It can also give you ideas for literature, authors, and journals to look into if you are stumped. All you need is one relevant article and its list of references!

For example, this image shows the backward citations for Sherman, Haidt, and Coan's (2009) article "Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness."

PRO TIP:

If you are in a database like PsycInfo, look for the "Cited References" link on the left-hand side of the page when you are in an article record. This link will bring you to a list of references cited in the article that are already indexed in the database. This link may exclude cited references that are not indexed in the database, so it's always a good idea to take a look at the full list of references as well.

Finding out whether a work has been cited after its publication will help you assess the importance of that work and how it has shaped subsequent research and scholarship. This is called forward citation searching.

Forward citation searching can also give you ideas for literature, authors, and journals to look into if you are stumped. All you need is to find one relevant journal article in a database that allows forward citation searching.

For example, this image shows the forward citations for Sherman, Haidt, and Coan's (2009) article "Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness."

To use Google Scholar as a resource for citation searching: 

1. Search for the title of the book or article. It can be helpful to put the title in quotes.
2. Choose the "Cited by" link.  

The resulting list will include articles and websites that cite the original work as well as books scanned through the Google Books project.

If you have linked Google Scholar to Williams Libraries:

• On the resulting list, use the Fulltext@Williams link (sometimes hidden under the double right arrows) to check whether we have the item in our collection.  Note: there may be more than one entry for your reference.