Related Guides
Frequently Used
- Online catalogThe library’s online catalog contains information about the books, e-books, music scores, videos (both DVD and VHS), and sound recordings that the library owns. The catalog also contains detailed information about the print journal and magazine titles that the library owns, but it does not contain citations for individual articles. For more help in using the catalog, ask a librarian, review our FAQs.
- Academic Search CompleteFind articles in all subject areas in over 17,000 journals and magazines, with full text for most. Updated daily. Dates vary, some as early as 1865 to present.
- CQ ResearcherExplores a single controversial issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to the environment, health, education and science and technology. 1991 to present.
Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources
Please see our Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources (last revised Aug. 2013).
Background
One way to understand how knowledge is advanced is by looking at networks of citations. A recent article's bibliography lists older articles the authors have consulted, leading to articles on a similar subject. Articles that have been cited repeatedly were key to advancing knowledge in their field. Citation analysis includes counting citations in a set of journals to look for these key articles. These help determine who the critical researchers are and where they are working.
Reading and counting citations in bibliographies allows us to look backwards, but it is possible to work forwards by seeing who has cited older articles. This approach began in the 1960s and continues to this day.
There are also new communications media today, like websites, blogs, and Twitter. "Altmetrics" is a new way to measure impact by monitoring mentions of research in these media and also looking at numbers of article and report downloads from websites.
Understanding Citation Analysis Video
This 9:39 video is from Jean Bedord, faculty member at the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science for one of their classes. It covers background and methods for Google Scholar and Web of Science. We do not provide ProQuest Dialog.
