Citation chaining is a useful skill to help you find the breadth of research on a topic. There are two parts to it: backward chaining and forward chaining. It just takes a single article to get started.
Backward chaining is looking at articles cited in the original. What research has come before?
Forward chaining is locating articles that are citing the original article you found. What has this article influenced?
If you are conducting your search using EagleSearch, you can quickly and easily citation chain. You will need to be affiliated with Embry-Riddle to actually access the articles, but can still view the results and citation chains if you are not affiliated.
Once you have entered your search, scroll through the results, looking for the red arrow symbol in the right corner:
Please note: Not every result will have this feature. Some results might have the option to do backward or forward chaining only.
If you would like to backward chain, click on the red down arrow:
You will be taken to a new results page that contains the works cited in that article. Please note that this page might not contain all the works cited in the original article. To view the full list of works cited, you will need to navigate to the article itself and find the reference list.
On the page that has the works cited in the original article you might notice the toggle Add results beyond Hunt Library's collection above the results list:
This means that the results you see include sources that might not be available to you. If that is the case, you can always see if you can Interlibrary Loan the item.
The results page might also have sources that include the citation chaining arrows. Clicking on those arrows will take you to the next chain, either forwards or backwards, in the research.
For example, within this article's list of works cited is a source that has a works cited button. Clicking on that will take you to the results page for works cited for that resource. You can follow a citation chain path as long as there are results that have those buttons. To keep track, EagleSearch will have your citation path above the results, so you can see where you have been:
If you would like to go back to any source within the chain, you can click on it and your chain will remain:
If you would like to forward chain, click on the double up arrows:
You will be taken to a new results page that contains the works that cite that article. Please note that this page might not contain all the works citing the original article.
On the page that has the works citing the original article you might notice the toggle Add results beyond Hunt Library's collection above the results list:
This means that the results you see include sources that might not be available to you. If that is the case, you can always see if you can Interlibrary Loan the item.
The results page might also have sources that include the citation chaining arrows. Clicking on those arrows will take you to the next chain, either forwards or backwards, in the research.
For example, within this results list is a resource that has a sources citing button. Clicking on that will get you to the sources that cite that article. You can follow a citation chain path as long as there are results that have those buttons. To keep track, EagleSearch will have your citation path above the results, so you can see where you have been:
If you would like to go back to any source within the chain, you can click on it and your chain will remain:
Citation chaining outside of EagleSearch can be more difficult, depending on the database you are using. You can easily see the works that are cited in the document listed at the end. However, if those citations are not in the database, accessing them is harder. Sometimes databases will include a link to the Google Scholar version. To see if Hunt Library has the document you are looking for, just copy and paste the title of the resource into EagleSearch.
For forward chaining, some databases include a Cited by section. You can also search for the article in Google Scholar. If you are using Google Scholar, make sure you go through the library website, so if there are any resources Hunt Library subscribe to you will be able to access them.
Click on Research Databases under Search Options, then navigate to Google Scholar:
When full text is available through Hunt Library, you’ll see the Full Text from ERAU link to the right of the item.
To discover the works citing the resource look for the Cited by link under the abstract:
