Q. How do I find out who has cited a work?

Citation tracking, or citation analysis tools in databases are used to find out how many times an author or article has been cited by others. It is often used to determine a work's "impact" in a particular discipline.

Here are some general things to keep in mind when tracking citations:

• For best results, work from a complete and accurate list of an author's publications. Authors do not always use the same name throughout their careers.
• Be careful when searching author names. ISI databases like Web of Science use the author's last name and first initial. Be sure to truncate the first-name initial (add *) to see a more complete list. ISI databases do index more than the first author.
• Names and other bibliographic information are supplied by the citing author and so may not be correct. Look for strays and evaluate if it is the same publication.
• Remember citation indexes are primarily based on selected journal literature. If the author is most likely to be cited in books, non-English language journals, or journals not covered in the database, the usefulness of citation analysis is limited.

Citations can be tracked through the following databases:

Scopus (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles in medicine, science, social sciences, and arts & humanities. 
• Search for a particular work, then click the number under Cited by. Or, search for a particular author, select the correct author, and click the number under Cited by for each article. 

Google Scholar (free)

• Includes multi-disciplinary journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. 
• Search for a particular work, then click on Cited by (number). 

Web of Science (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles (in Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Index databases), conference proceedings (in Conference Proceedings Citation Index), and books (in Book Citation Index database).
• Use Cited Reference Search to see how many times a particular work or author has been cited.
• Or, search for a particular work, then click on the number that follows Times Cited. 
• Create a Citation Alert to be notified of when a particular work is cited.

CiteSeerX Beta (free)

• Includes journal articles in computer and information science. 
• Search for a particular work or author. Select the desired work, then click on the number following Citations. Also see Years of Citing Articles at the right-hand side of the page to see citations across time. 

EBSCOhost Databases (Emory subscription)

• The following EBSCOhost databases allow citation tracking: Academic Search Complete (multi-disciplinary); America: History & Life; Business Source Complete; CINAHL (nursing & allied health); Communication & Mass Media Complete; EconLit; Environment Complete; GreenFILE (environmental studies); Historical Abstracts; Hospitality & Tourism; Humanities International; Information Science & Technology Abstracts; LBGT Life with Full Text; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts; Literary Reference Center; Music Index; Political Science Complete; PsycARTICLES & PsycINFO; SocINDEX with Full Text; World History Collection.
• Click on Cited References at top of page (sometimes found under More tab). Search for a particular author or work. Select works, then click Find Citing Articles. 

ScienceDirect (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles in medicine, science, some social sciences, and some humanities. 
• Search for a particular article, then click on Cited by in Scopus (number). 

MathSciNet (Emory subcription)

• Includes journal articles, conference proceedings, and books in mathematics. 
• Use the Citations tab to search for a particular author. The search will result in a list of publications, ranked by number of citations. 
• Or, use the Publications tab to search for a particular article and see how many times it has been cited. 

ACM Portal to Computing Literature (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles and conference proceedings in computer science and information technology. 
• Search for a particular author or work. For each work, number of citations and number of downloads is shown. Click on title of work, then click the Cited By tab.    

IEEE Xplore (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles and conference proceedings in electrical engineering and computer science. 
• Search for a particular author or work, then click on Cited by (number). 

SciFinder (Emory subscription, first-time users must register)

• Includes journal articles, conference proceedings, and books in chemistry and related sciences. 
• Search for a particular topic or author. Select the desired topic/author, then click Get References. Select a particular title, then click Get Citing.

Journals@Ovid (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles in medicine, science, and social science.
• Search for a particular article, then click Find Citing Articles.  

JSTOR (Emory subscription)

• Includes journal articles in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. 
• Search for a particular author or work. Click (number) Items Citing This Item to see citing works within the JSTOR database, or click Items Citing This Item to see citing works in Google Scholar. 

**For more information see our Impact Factors and Citation Analysis research guide.