... Citation Tracking

In many publications, both online and in print, you will find a bibliography at the back. In it, the author lists the literature used or makes recommendations for more interesting literature on the topic. This way, you can get on the trail of other useful books or articles. This method is also called backward citation tracking because it allows you to find literature that is older than the article.

In databases such as Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar, you can also see who is referencing an article. This is also called forward citation tracking or snowballing because it allows you to find newer articles than the one you have in front of you. This is a useful search strategy if you have found a source that is relevant but too old.

 

Example

 

Sneeuwballen in Citatie-indezen, voorbeeld uit Web of Science

 

The bibliography of this article from Web of Science contains 43 references, and there are 732 articles in Web of Science that have this article in their bibliography.