Cited Reference Searching & Journal Rankings: Sci/Tech/Eng/Med

How to locate articles and other documents that have cited a previously published document. Also how to determine where a journal is ranked in relation to others in its field.

Why search in subject databases?

A subject database will almost always cover more journals and cover different dates in your field than does Web of Science (WoS), so it will often be possible to find additional citations. In addition, one simply can't rely on the completeness of coverage in Google Scholar.

Note: Many databases have only fairly recently begun to track citations.

ACM Digital Library

Step 1.  On the right side of the advanced search screen, choose Authors from the drop down menu, enter the full name of the author and click on Search. The database seems to do a pretty good job of recognizing different versions of the name. Entry order doesn't matter because it ANDs them.

Example of advanced search screen

Step 2.  On the results screen it may be convenient to change the sort order to publication date. Leave the results in expanded form so that the citation counts are shown.

Example showing the sort box

Step 3.  The citation counts are shown at the right. To see the citing publications, click on the title  the on the Cited By tab. This example is useful because it is a book, a format not covered by many STEM databases. This database has deep coverage of conference proceedings, which are not in Web of Science.

Screen example showing the count of citations

Step 4. To see the citing publications, click on the title to go to the record and then click on the Cited By tab.

Example screen showing citations

arXiv

Step 1.  Click on Advanced Search in the upper right corner.

Example of arXiv advanced search screen

Step 2.  Enter the author's initial(s) and last name and click the Do Search button. If more than one author is retrieved, it may be useful to limit the search to a field of study at the top; physics is subdivided.

Example of screen showing location of citation links

Step 3. The results list does not indicate whether a record has been cited by another, so records must be viewed sequentially. Click on the arXiv id number.

Example screen showing location of arXiv id number

Step 4.  To the right of each record is a box labeled References & Citations. Click on the 'cited by' link below INSPIRE HEP and allow time for the results to load.

Example screen showing location of - Cited by - link location

Step 5.  Return to the previous screen and click on NASA ADS. For more details on how these results display, see the Astrophysics Data Systems box immediately below.

Astrophysics Data System

Step 1: if the article has been cited,  you'll find the following links [See below]:

Citations to the Article (##) (Citation History)
Refereed Citations to the Article

Clicking on either of the citations links will produce a list of citing articles. The number of citations and refereed citations is often the same.

Screen example showing location of citation links

IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore
Step 1.  Click on Author Search beneath the input box. Boxes will appear for first, middle and last names.

Screen example showing location of the Author Search link

 

Step 2. If there are citing publications it will be indicated near the bottom of each record with "Cited by:  Papers (N)" and possibly Patents.  Note: The default sort is Relevance; if you are working through a CV you may find it more convenient to change the sort to publication date.

Screen example showing cited references

Step 3. Click on any link  in the "Cited by:"  line to see the list.

Screen example showing references

 

MathSciNet

MathSciNet Citations are available from different starting points for different journals, the oldest being from 1997. Reference lists are not tracked for all journals indexed in MathSciNet; click here for a list of the >400 included journals and their start dates.

Step 1.  Click on the Citations tab.

Screen example showing location of Citations tab

Step 2.  Enter the author's last name, first initial with an asterisk. Click Search.

Screen example showing how to enter and author search

Step 3. If more than one author matches, you'll be prompted to select the correct name from the drop down menu. Click on" List results for this author."

Screen example showing results list

Step 4.  The citation counts for the ten most frequently cited articles will be shown with citation counts at the left. If there are more than ten results, the remaining citations are given as a lump sum.

Screen example showing citation counts

Step 5. To find citation counts for the rest of the articles, click the Home tab in the upper right to return to the main search page, enter the title of the article in the appropriate search box and click Search. Each additional article will have to be searched individually.

Screen example showing location of Home tab

Step 6. Click on an MR# to see the record. In the Citations box to the right the From References are the articles citing the listed article.

Screen example showing location of MR#

SciFinder

SciFinder: Citations are available from 1997 to the present. Although it is possible to include Medline in a search, no citation records from Medline are included. For this reason, if the author's work is interdisciplinary, you should search for citing articles in Medline as well.

Step 1. If the Explore tab is open, click on Author Name in the REFERENCES menu. Enter as much of the name as you know and the database will provide possible matches.

Screen example of an author search


Step 2.  Click on any Author Name Candidates entries that may be your author of interest and click "Get References."

Screen example of author results list

Step 3.  To the far right for each record there will be a tilde and number near an icon of a paper and arrow. Clicking on the icon will result in a set of all articles covered in SciFinder since 1997 that cite that publication. 

Note: Instead of looking at a single article, clicking on Get Citing option under the Get Related Citations tab at the top of the screen will provide a set of citing records for the entire set of results. This will serve as a shortcut if you are interested in the total number of citations to an author's body of work in SciFinder.

Screen example showing location of tilde icon

Other Databases' Search Tips

The following databases can provide cited reference information.  Click on Search tips to learn how to search for citing references and find links to the databases.

Alt Health Watch - Search Tips

CINAHL - Search Tips

Consumer Health Complete - Search Tips

Copper Data Center - Search Tips

Environment Complete - Search Tips

GreenFILE - Search Tips

Health Source - Consumer Edition

Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition

Medline - Search Tips

ProQuest Central  - Search Tips
Includes the following databases so they need not be searched separately:

Dissertations and Theses

Health & Medical Complete

Medical Library

Research Library

Science Journals

SPORTDiscus - Search Tips