Class 7 - Citation Searching
Citation Searching was pioneered by the Eugene Garfield and the Institute for Scientific Information (see Wikipedia). Unlike traditional indexing of TOCs and arrangment by subject descriptors or headings, this method indexes endnotes/footnotes. The legal profession has done a kind of citation indexing with "Shepardizing", a service that tracks legal citations (statutes, cases, etc.) to find out where they have been further cited. Shepardizing can be used to determine the current status of a legal case (has it been upheld, overturned, etc.).
Unlike Shepardizing, the ISI citation system does not give the status of a citation. It does not state whether a source was cited approvingly, disapprovingly, or neutrally. That is left up to the researcher. ISI citations are increasingly used by universities for tenure and promotion decisions.
When the ISI products first came out they were issued in print format. The Science Citation Index was first, followed by the Social Sciences Citation Index, and later by the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Today they are bundled together in the online edition called Web of Science.
Recently there are two primary competitors to Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. Note: Be sure to read the Penrose Google Scholar Research Guide to configure access to DU full text resources.
Other database products provide citation linking in their narrow disciplines. Examples include:
ACM Guide to Computing Literature
Amazon: example see http://www.amazon.com/gp/search-inside/citationshelp.html
SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Physical Review Online Archive
Citation Bridge (U.S. Patents) - must register first
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patents full text search
Roth, Dana L. 2005. The emergence of competitors to the science citation index and the web of science. Current Science 89, (9): 1531-6, http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_089_09_1531_1536_0.pdf
Cited Reference Searching: An Introduction: http://scientific.thomson.com/tutorials/citedreference/crsmenu.htm
In-Class Workshop
1. Find the article by Wertz, D. in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
2. John M. Poate is often cited. Find the article of his that is most cited.
3. There was a famous article published about the Nacirema. Locate this article. Find the articles this article cites. Then find all the articles that cite this article.
4. Use Web of Science to find book reviews of The Color Purple.