Skip to Main Content

Research for Literature Reviews

Live Help

Chat loading...

Citation Mining

When you have found relevant and useful resources, use "citation mining" to find more on your topic. This can take one of several forms:

  1. Look at the reference list of your resources to find the sources that those authors used.
  2. Find out who has cited your resources.
  3. Find more resources written by the same author or published in the same journal.

Citation Mining Techniques

Look at the reference list or bibliography of an article/book that you read that you found relevant and useful. Chances are, several of the resources cited by the authors will also be of interest to you.

Depending on whether or not TRU Library has access to the resource you are looking for or not and if it is in Discover, you may need to try more than one of the below steps to get your resource.

  1. Search for the first author's last name and most or all of the article/book title in Discover.
    1. If you're looking for a book and do not find it this way, place an inter-library loan.
    2. If you're looking for an article and do not find it this way, go to step 2.
  2. Search for the journal title in the "Journals" tab on the library home page.
    1. If you find the journal, navigate to the year / volume / issue of your article.
  3. If you do not find the journal, repeat your first search in Google Scholar or simply in Google. If you still do not get access to the article, place an inter-library loan.

This process can be difficult at times; if you have trouble, ask your subject librarian.

PlumX Metrics

Discover and databases run by EBSCO (i.e. databases that look just like Discover) have a purple star attached to articles that indicates how that article has been used. Follow the link and click on "Citations" to see other articles that have cited this one. The other "metrics" (social media, captures, and usage) are other ways of measuring how people use articles.

Database Tools

Some databases have built-in tools to see how an article has been cited by other articles in that database. See the "Measuring Research Impact" guide for more information.

Google Scholar

Because Google Scholar has such a large number of articles, the "cited by" tool is particularly strong. Search for your article in Google Scholar and look for the "cited by" link to get a list of articles.

Keep in mind...

  • Recently published articles will not have been cited as often as older articles.
  • These tools are not entirely comprehensive; some articles may be excluded.
  • These tools work best for articles; books and media citations are not as well-indexed or easily searchable.

A particular author may have written many articles and/or books on a topic that interests you. Search in Discover, Google Scholar, or the database you are in for their name and limit to "author" to find these publications. You may have to try different variations of their name. For example, if you wanted to find all the articles written by Martin Allan Smith, you might have to try:

  • Martin Allan Smith
  • M. A. Smith
  • Martin A. Smith
  • Smith, M.A.

If a journal title catches your eye, you can search or browse through the journal to find relevant articles. Search for the title of the journal under the "Journals" tab of the TRU library homepage. Under the "Full Text Access" dropdown, you will find the different places where the journal articles are stored. You will be able to browse titles of articles in specific issues, and often you can search within the journal for your keywords.