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Liberal Arts: Citations

Books on Citation

Backward + Forward Citation Searching

Citation searching, sometimes called cited reference searching, refers to finding articles that have cited a previously published older work (i.e. following research forward). Citation searching can also include looking at the citations within a paper (i.e. the Reference List) to trace research backwards.

The number of times a paper is cited in the work of others can be an indication of its usefulness. Through citation searching, you can discover how a known idea or innovation has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended, or corrected. Citation analysis can also be used to identify emerging areas of research, identify a field's leading researchers and to assess research output.

CREATION MOVES FORWARD IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION

RESEARCH MOVES BACKWARD

The Kettering database Web of Science has a 'Citation Network' box next to each article. This gives a snapshot of how many times the article was cited (forward citation searching) and how many cited references the article contains (backward citation searching.) 

The Citation Map below shows a visualization of both backward and forward citation searching. Note that only articles included inside Web of Science are counted.

Definitions

CITATIONS

The in-text reference that gives brief details (author, date, page) of the source you are quoting or referring to. This citation corresponds with the full details of the work (title, publisher, etc) given in your reference list or bibliography, so that the reader can identify and/or find the source.

REFERENCE LIST

A list of references at the end of your paper that includes the full information for your citations so that the reader can easily identify and retrieve each work (journal articles, books, webpages, etc).  Your reference list contains all the items you have cited or directly quoted from.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of works you have consulted for your paper, but not cited in the Reference List. Works should be listed in alphabetical order by author and laid out in the same way as items in your reference list. If you can cite from every work you consulted, you will only need a reference list. 

Always check the guidance you are given for your research paper to find out if you are expected to submit work with a reference list and a bibliography. 

Citation Managers

EndNote is provided by the library for all Kettering University students, faculty, and staff by clicking here. EndNote 21, the world’s best reference manager, helps you save time, stay organized, collaborate with colleagues, and ultimately, get published. So, you can focus on what matters most: your ideas. 

Zotero is a free, open-source, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research in a single, searchable interface. Zotero is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS. Still not sure, read more about their privacy policies, open-source code, and commitment to continual improvement here.

Mendeley is a free reference manager that can help you store, organize, note, share and cite references and research data. Automatically generate bibliographies, collaborate easily with other researchers online, import papers from other research software, find relevant papers based on what you're reading, and access your papers from anywhere online. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

RefWorks is paid web-based bibliographic software that enables you to organize your research, include citations while you write your paper, build a bibliography in a variety of formats, import references from many data sources, and create bibliographies in different document formats (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.).

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