What does citing and cited mean for a research article?
Cited References - go backwards in time from an article
A key element of a scholarly article is the list of references. This list of references can be labeled: cited references, works cited, bibliographies, additional resources, footnotes, references and notes. All of these terms refer to the works that an author has used prior to coming up with his/her research.
Why should you be interested in cited references?
- To better understand an author's writing, biases and idea formation
- To find more materials directly related to the topic addressed in the article
Citing References - go forward in time from an article
Citing references refer to articles that use a particular article as their source. NOTE: Older articles are more likely to have citing references.
Why should you be interested in citing references?
- When an article is cited multiple times it is generally more credible than an article that has never been cited.
- Looking forward in time to other articles that cite a key article lead you to more current research on that topic and information that may prove or disprove the original research article.
- Identifying key researchers in a particular area of study
- If you have a research idea, try looking for the citing references to a key research article in your topic area. This can tell you if others have already done research in the direction you wish to research.
Where can you do cited and citing searches?
The following are databases at Concordia that provide various levels of citing reference searching.
- SciFinder Scholar for CAS and Medline. Search results records contain a link called Citing. There are also tabs for 'Get Cited' (articles that are cited), 'Get Citing' (articles that use this article as a citation)
- ProQuest's PsycInfo and Sociological Abstracts.
- EBSCO's Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and CINAHL NOTE: Cited and citing references are limited to citations within these databases. Click on More at the top of the search page to search for citing references. You can also locate an article, if the article has citing reference in the database they will show up near the bottom of the article citation.
- Google Scholar will bring the most frequently cited sources (older stuff) to the top of your search but does not currently search across Elsevier or ACS journals.
NOTE: Many databases now include the cited references from an article within the database, but no single database will find all the citing references to an article.
Maintained by Theresa Borchert. Last update 1-28-2013.
Send comments or corrections to borchert@cord.edu
Carl B. Ylvisaker Library, Concordia College, Moorhead,Minnesota