Systematic literature searching

Cited reference searching is also called snowballing, citation pearl searching, and forward- or backward searching.

The process builds on an article or other document you already know is relevant to your study – a “citation pearl”.

• Look through the list of cited references to go backward in time by following up the sources the authors used.

• Use the “citation pearl” to go forward in time by using a citation index. The quickest way is to paste the title into Google Scholar and click 'Cited by'.

1. Search for a key paper in Google Scholar
2. Click on 'Cited by' to see all of the documents citing this key paper, according to Google Scholar

1. Search for a key paper using the 'Document search' in Scopus
2. Click on the number in the 'Cited by' column to see all of the documents citing this key paper, according to Scopus

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1. Search for a key paper using the title and author fields in a basic search 
2. Click on the number of 'Times cited' to see a list of the documents citing this key paper, according to Web of Science

If the item you are looking for is difficult to find, use the Cited Reference search in Web of Science to locate it and all of the citations to it.