When searching sources, one strategy to follow is what is known as Citation Tracing. This method follows the scholarly conversation of a source by looking at the sources authors have used (Backward Citation Tracing) and what new literature has used this source in their own research (Forward Citation Tracing). There are citation tracing tools found both within library catalogs and through Google Scholar.

Citation Tracing Within Library Catalogs

If you are looking for resources through an academic library catalog, their discovery service may allow you to choose whether you want to find library resources via forward or backward citation tracing. The library discovery service Primo, for example, provides “citation trails,” where you can look to see if the library has sources in its collection that were cited in a particular article. This is done by clicking on the downward arrow icon that says “cited in this” and performing a backward citation trace or look for newer published works that have used your chosen source in their research, select the upward arrows branching out that says “citing this” to perform a forward citation trace.

Citation Tracing through Google Scholar

If you want to look outside of a library’s catalog to see how other authors have utilized an article, you can search for the article title in Google Scholar and then click “cited by” (located below the article’s abstract) to get a list of results. Just remember, Google Scholar is an academic search engine, not a scholarly database. It doesn’t own or publish any journals and results found through Google Scholar do not guarantee that you will have full text access.