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MGMT 2110 - Organizational Behavior (Fall 2024): Citation Chaining

Citation Chaining

Citation chaining helps you find papers by following citations through a chain of scholarly articles. It is an essential technique to support your literature review process. You can do backward and forward searching based on an article in hand.

Method:

  • usually start with a "perfect" article in hand (also called "seed" article)
  • can be in two directions: Backward searching and forward searching based on this perfect article

Tools:

  • Library's PowerSearch, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Semantic Scholar, etc.
  • Learn more from Citation Chaining Tools

Backward searching

  • finds articles the author used (in the reference list of the perfect article) to see what prior research it is based on. 

  • These articles are usually called: "References", "Cited Articles", "Cited Documents" 

  • It helps you trace classical and foundational studies

 

Forward searching

  • finds articles that have cited the perfect article after its publication
  • These articles are usually called: "Citing Articles", "Citing Documents"
  • It helps you trace the latest development on the topic

 

Citation Chaining on PowerSearch

PowerSearch

Click these icons near the article title or on the article record page to explore related articles.

Near article title from result list:

On the article record page:

 

Find sources cited in this article, i.e. "references"

(Backward searching)

Find sources that are citing this article 

(Forward searching)

See a sample article

Remember:

The citing or cited articles you got are those available in PowerSearch. Try multiple platforms if you want to get more exhausive results.

Citation Chaining on Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Click on the citation numbers to explore related articles.

  • Cited by # - Find articles that are citing this article (Forward searching)

Can also check:

  • Related articles - Find more related works based on Google's algorithm

Sample record on Google Scholar: Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals (citation information accuracy as of 21 Jul 2022)

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