Articles That Cite Other Articles

Cited Reference Searching (Who Cited Whom?)

If you are looking for articles that cite other articles or books, you need to use a database which includes cited reference searching. Cited reference searching allows you to search the footnotes and bibliographies of publications to determine if they have cited a specific author or work.

The most complete source for cited reference searching is ISI Web of Science. Despite its name, the Web of Science is a multidisciplinary database that contains threekey sources for cited reference searching: the Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

Another important database for cited reference searching is Scopus. Scopus, a database from the Elsivier publishing group, provides cited reference searching for scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature.

EBSCO databases also offer cited reference searching, however, their coverage is far less comprehensive than the Web of Science.

A Note About Cited Reference Searching

There is no single citation database that can track every occurrance of a citation. Databases that offer cited reference searching focus on academic journals. As a results, many books and other monographs will not be included. In addition, while the Science Citation Index's coverage begins in the 1940s, the coverage of the other citation indexes is not as comprehensive. Keep this in mind when beginning your cited reference search.

Citing Reference Searching using Web of Science - Scopus - EBSCO

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Web of Science

The Web of Science is part of a product called ISI Web of Knowledge, which includes a variety of research products. To enter the Web of Science search interface, go to "Web of Science" under "Searchable Database Products" and click on "Go".

ISI Web of Knowledge

Web of Science includes three different citation indexes: the Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. By default, you will be searching all three indexes at once. However, it may be in your interest to select just one or two of these resources--especially if you are searching for an author with a very common name.

Web of Science Options

Once you have selected your database(s), you will need to select your search option. Click on the option for "Cited Reference Search" to begin.

Select Cited Refernce Searching

Searching Web of Science can be challenging. Web of Science requires you to enter authors' names and journal titles into the search interface in a specific way.

For authors' names, you should enter the last name and first initial of the author. Should you know the author's middle initial, you can also include this information. However, if you are unsure of whether the author commonly publishes using his/her middle initial, we recommend just using the wildcard *. For example, to search John Doe, we would recommend entering "doe j*".

If you chose to include the journal title, you must enter the journal name as described in ISI's journal abbreviations list (which is linked directly from the search interface). For example, if you want to search for Hispanic American Historical Review, you must enter the title as HISPANIC AM HIST REV. If you do not know the journal, you can skip this step.

Enter Your Search Terms Using ISI Parameters

Once you have conducted your search, Web of Science will retrieve a long list of cited works. Since some bibliographies may contain errors or authors may cite their references differently, you will likely see multiple occurrences of each cited work. We recommend that in order to complete your search, you are as inclusive as possible and select all of the variations listed.

Select the work.

Once you selected your options and finished your search, you will retrieve a list of works that have cited the publication you have just searched for.

Search Results

While you can finish your search locating the article or publication in the Library by clicking on the Find It! inks, you may wish to continue your search. One of the great aspects of Web of Science is that it is a great discovery tool. You can continue to follow the bibliographic "chain" by clicking on the small number next to "Times Cited" in your citation. This will show you the papers that have cited this particular source, and so forth.

Searching Scopus

Scopus is slightly easier to search than Web of Science. You do not need to use specific journal appreviations, nor know all of the author's name. To begin, enter your desired search terms:

Scopus Search Screen

Once you retrieve your search results, limit to the author you are interested in located cited articles for.

Limit Your Search

Then you will get the various articles that have cited this author in your given time period, or in the specific journal you searched for.

Scopus Search Results

Searching EBSCO

Academic Search Premier (and other EBSCO products) alos includes a cited reference searching feature. However, please be aware that EBSCO's cited reference searching contains a smaller collection of sources than the Web of Science (whose coverage expands back several decades).

To conduct a cited reference search, select "Cited References," which displays on the toolbar of the search screen. You will be presented with a list of search options, including cited author and source.

EBSCO Cited Reference Searching

Citation records in EBSCO do not include abstracts, but will include the "Find It!" links to connect to help you locate the sources you need.

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How do I find a known article?
When you have a citation or bibliography.

Cited Reference Searching Using ISI Web of Knowledge (pdf)
Cited Reference Searching in the Sciences