Cited reference searching
One of the challenges in doing research in a new area is that we may be exposed to an area of scholarly debate in a more one-sided way, just insofar as we may be introduced to it in the context of one author's argument. We can find articles and books which respond to (or build upon) an author/author's work using a technique called cited reference searching.
Using Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a very straightforward way of doing this kind of search. You may enter an author's name, the name of an article or book, etc., and then try to locate it among the results.
An animated example is below, but here are the steps:
- We can use Patricia Cox Miller's Dreams in Late Antiquity as an example. Type in something like the author's last name and an identifying portion of the title of the book (or article).
- You might also search more broadly just for works by this author, or even just about some topic, depending on your needs.
- After you hit enter or click the search button, you will see a list of search results.
- Find the book/article you wish to see responses to in the list. Click the Cited by link beneath the description of that item.
- (Note: some may not appear here; Google Scholar, like essentially any database, generally does not have all the data pertaining to every single thing).
- In this case, Google Scholar is aware of 411 other books/articles that have referenced Miller's text. You may investigate any of them by clicking on their titles.
- In some cases this may take you to a complete article, but note that Google Scholar is not automatically integrated with the library's catalog, so you may need to look for the cited item in Tripod (or request it from another library, via Interlibrary Loan or EZBorrow).
- Be cautious also about freely-available versions of books and articles. While these certainly can be the final versions, in many cases the most easily accessible version in Google Scholar may be an unpublished version, a version not yet fully edited, etc.
- These are called "preprints" because they are versions of an article/etc. that have not yet gone through the whole scholarly review and publication process. This is why it is important to try to locate the item in Tripod.
