Citation Indexing, Databases,

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Citation Indexing, Databases, Searching An
Introduction

• Created by Kate Manuel (kmanuel_at_lib.nmsu.edu).

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What is citation indexing searching?

• Is a vastly different approach to organizing and
  accessing than is commonly used
• Citation searching tends to be used most by
  professional researchers
• It is a very power information retrieval tool
• It can be tricky

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Typical Searching

• When most people search
• they have a topic area in mind
• they go to a catalog, database, search engine, or
  some other information retrieval tool
• they type in a search corresponding to the topic
• they obtain some resources that they may or may
  not use

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Typical Searching

• Generates a lot of results
• Does not distinguish the key resources on a
  topic from everything else
• Does not allow researchers to see the
  relationships between the resources they find

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Citation Indexing Searching

• Begins with something having a known connection
  to the topic
• Often a resource previously published on the
  topic
• The name of an author working in that area
• The name of an institution where work on that
  topic is done
• Most common in the Sciences
• E.g., NMSU chili pepper research

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Citation Indexing Searching

• Lets you construct narrow searches, getting few
  results
• But results more precisely on topic
• Distinguishes key resources on a topic
• Enables you to see the relationships between
  documents

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Citation Indexing Searching
The article below will be cited by other authors
working on this topic
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Citation Indexing Searching
and cites others who have worked on the topic.
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Citation Indexing Searching

• Documents that cite each other have a closer
  relationship to each other and to the topic
  than documents found haphazardly during a search
• You can also see who is most commonly cited on a
  topic
• as well as relationships between documents over
  time

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Relationships between Documents

• Often reflect relationships between researchers
• Invisible Colleges
• Teacher/student relationships
• Schools of thought
• Methodological theoretical influences

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Citation Databases

• There are basically 3 of them
• Science Citation Index
• aka, SciSearch
• aka, SCI
• Social Science Citation Index
• aka, Social SciSearch
• aka, SSCI
• Arts Humanities Citation Index
• aka, AHCI

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Science Citation Index
Under General Search, you can search by any of
these options
and have your results sorted by the total
number of citations
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Science Citation Index

• Under Cited Search, you can fill in the
  publication details of a particular document to
  see how often and by whom it has been cited

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Science Citation Index

• Once you are in a record, you can see who this
  document cites, and who cites this document

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A few cautions about citation indexing

• Certain types of articles are cited
  disproportionately often
• Methodology (how to X) articles, particularly
• An average of two citations to an article is
  normal
• Many scholars cite themselves
• Their earlier work
• Inflating counts

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A few cautions about citation indexing

• Lots of citations to a document is indicative of
  its influence/impact
• Lots of people are responding to it
• They may be responding negatively, though
• If a document is going to be cited, it will
  generally be within the first 5 years after its
  publication
• Citation indexing works best for the Sciences,
  least well for the Arts Humanities