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Cal Poly Pomona

Help - With Citation Searching

When searching our databases by keyword or subject term doesn't retrieve what you want in our databases, you can try citation searching.

Citation Searching Explained
Citation searching, sometimes called cited reference searching, refers to finding articles that have cited a previously published older work (i.e. tracing research forward). Click here to read about the benefits and drawbacks of citation searching.

Casual Citation Searching
When viewing search results in some of our databases, you will sometimes see links that allow you to do a citation search. Note that newer articles are less likely to have these, as the longer an article has been around, the more likely it is to be cited. The table below identifies some of our products that have this feature and what the links look like. All of these casual citation searching sources below depend upon the extent of their data analysis (which may be limited) and cannot be considered reliable sources for a comprehensive citation search.


     
Amazon.com  

Partial screenshot of Amazon.com page
Some books have links for citations; you usually have to scroll down quite a ways to see them. The "learn more" link tells you about the limitations of their citation database.

partial screenshot of amazaon.com mouseover view
When the book cover image has the "Search Inside" designation, you can mouseover the image to get a screen that has a link to farther down the page where the citation links are.

     

     
Blackwell Synergy   Screenshot of a Blackwell results list with the Abstract and Full Text HTML links circled
In the Blackwell product, click on either the "Abstract" or "Full Text HTML" link.
Screenshot of the bottom of an abstract view showing the "This Article Cited By" items
Scroll down to the end of the resulting screen to find the listings of the articles that cited the older article.
     

     
CSA products:
 
  Screenshot of a CSA  search result with a link to citing references
In a CSA product, the link " Cited by X" gives you a citation search. If you were to click on the "References" link, you would get a reproduction of the bibliography of the article with additional "Cited by X" links:
Screenshot of the "Cited by X" links you get from clicking on a "References" link in CSA databases
     

     
Ebscohost products:
 
  Screenshot of an Ebscohost link for a casual citation search
In an Ebsco product, the link "Cited References" gives you a reproduction of the bibliography of the cited article. The link "Times Cited in this Database" gives you a citation search.
     

     
Google Scholar   Screenshot of Google Scholar showing the link for "Cited by"
Click on the "Cited by" link. See Help With Searching Google Scholar for more about searching this resource.
     

     
Highwire Press Journals:
 
  Screenshot of Highwire press article record
In a citation or PDF view, look at the right side links; the "Citing Articles via Highwire" link takes you to lower on the page where there is a links to citing articles. There also may be a link for "Citing Articles via ISI web of Science"
     

     
IEEE Explore   Screenshot of citation listing from IEEE explore with link to Abstract Plus
From the results list, click on "AbstractPlus".
Screenshot of the Citing Docuemtnes at the bottom of the screen
Then look at towards the bottom of the page for "Citing Documents".
     

     
JSTOR   From the results list, click on the "Page of First Match" Link.
From the results list, click on the "Page of First Match" Link.
Look to the right of the page for citing article links.
Look to the right of the resulting page for citing article links.
     

     
MathSciNet   Screenshot of Mathscinet results showing link to MR number
Click on the MR number to get a fuller view of the data.
Screenshot of MathScinet record with citation links
Then look for the "Citations" box in the upper right hand corner for links to citation searches.
     

     
Sage Journals   Screenshot of Sage record showing asbract link
From the results list, click on "Abstract"
Screenshot from the abstract view showing the cited by link
Then look at the right side of the page (usually about halfway down) for the link for "Articles citing this article"
     

     
ScienceDirect
Warning: ScienceDirect uses Scopus, and we do not have a subscription to Scopus. Thus, you may sometimes be denied access to Scopus. If you do get to Scopus, you will be using a free trial version with limited capabilties.
  Screenshot from Sciencedirect showing abstract link
Click on the "Abstract" link
Screenshot from Sciencedirect showing scopus link
Click on the "Cited by Scopus" link
     

     
Springerlink   Screenshot from a Springerlink search showing how to click on the title
Click on the title of an item to get the full record;
screenshot from springerlink showing the referenced by heading
Then look at the right side of the page (usually about halfway down) for the listing of "Referenced By" articles.
     

There may be more database products that offer this feature.

Deliberate Citation Searching
This type of citation searching involves detailed prior knowledge of a older article. If you know the bibliographic citation for this older article, some products have an interface that specifically designed for this.


     
Ebscohost products:
 
 

Screenshot of the start of a deliberate citation search in Ebsco
Click on the "Cited References" link and then fill in data from the bibliographic citation of the old article you want to track.
Screenshot of the search form of a deliberate citation search in Ebsco
If there is more than one item retrieved, you can pick which ones you want to track. You will then get a listing of the articles that have cited the original old article.


     
Scifinder Scholar   The printed guide for Scifinder Scholar describes how to do a deliberate citation search.
     
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