Subject Guide
What is Citation Tracking?
Citation tracking is tracing who has cited a particular paper. As a literature search strategy, it can be useful for identifying important papers, discovering who else is doing research on a topic of interest, and finding more recent research on a topic.
Citation tracking is also critical to impact factor, a measure of an article's, or entire journal's, influence on a field of research. The more citations a paper or journal has, the higher the impact factor.
Citation Tracking with Google Scholar
Google Scholar is the best free resource for citation tracking. Under each citation in your search results, look for a "Cited by" link and click it to get citations of that article.
Google Scholar finds citations that are visible on the Web. As more and more databases make citation information publicly accessible, Scholar becomes more useful for citation tracking--but be aware that it won't find everything, and it will find a lot of articles that the library can't access. Use the Library Links option in your Scholar settings to link Scholar to PLU's collection (campus computers are already configured to do this).
Library Databases Offering Citation Tracking
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowUse "Cited References" link in blue navigation bar.
- ACS Journal Archives This link opens in a new windowCited by listings appear on article detail page.
- AnthroSource This link opens in a new windowCited by listing appears under "HTML and more information" link.
- BioOne This link opens in a new windowClick "Citing Articles" on the article detail page for information from CrossRef and Google Scholar.
- Business Source Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete provides access to scholarly journals, industry reports, company profiles, and market research, encompassing every facet of a business, including marketing, finance, management, accounting, and more.
- CINAHL This link opens in a new window
CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is the premier source for evidence-based nursing and allied health research, from systematic reviews and RCTs to case studies and care recommendations.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Communication & Mass Media provides access to peer-reviewed journals, books, reports, and multimedia across communication, mass media, journalism, and other closely-related fields.
- SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
In order to use SciFinder-n, an individual registration is required. There is no cost associated with this registration.
SciFinder-n facilitates discovery of substances, reactions, and references. Covering millions of chemical structures, reactions, and scientific publications, SciFinder-n is essential for researchers in chemistry, materials science, and related fields.
- Scitation (American Institute of Physics) This link opens in a new window
Scitation serves as the online repository for the American Institute of Physics (AIP). It offers comprehensive access to peer-reviewed physics research, encompassing journals and conference proceedings.
