Research Guides: Mellon Mays Undergradute Research Fellows (SC): Tracing the impact of an article

Start with one good article, and trace its impact

As you work on your research project, you'll notice that certain scholars' interests seem to line up more closely with your work than others. Finding who has cited these scholars' works can connect you with interesting and relevant research you might have otherwise missed. This can also be helpful for finding counter-arguments and alternative perspectives you might not have considered, since scholars often cite works so as to explain how they disagree with them.

Use the following databases to find a relevant resource and then see which later texts cite the one with which you start, sometimes called "cited reference searching."

Web of Science Citation Databases
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Follow these instructions to conduct cited reference searches in Web of Science:
- Click on the blue arrow next to Basic Search, and select Cited Reference search.
- Then enter the author's name (last name, then first initial only with asterisk: e.g., smith, b*).
- Insert the publication year (if you have one) in the "Cited Year" box.
- On the next screen, choose the relevant results based on the "Cited Work" titles. The results screen shows the newest articles first. Check the article abstract (if included) to determine the relevance of each resource.

Google Scholar
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The Advanced Search allows you to find results by author, article title, publication title and more. Google Scholar covers journal articles in depth but also cites some websites and word documents.