Question 9

Correct answer is c) Web of Science

Citation Searching

A citation database tracks the influence of a particular work backwards and forwards in time by linking bibliographic citations. It’s a good way of gathering related research on a topic.

The number of times a work has been cited can also be used to measure its impact and importance.

For example, here is the most frequently cited article by Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize winner from Carnegie Mellon.

SIMON HA
THEORIES OF DECISION-MAKING IN ECONOMICS AND BEHAVIORAL-SCIENCE
AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW 49 (3): 253-283 1959
Times Cited: 395

Web of Science

Web of Science is a commercial database that includes the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Database, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. These interdisciplinary indexes can also be used for author, title, and subject searching.

Go to the Libraries home page http://www.library.cmu.edu/

Click on Databases by Name, A to Z

Click on the letter W

Select Web of Science

Select Social Sciences Citation Index

Choose the “Cited Reference Search” box

Search by author or by individual article

Web of Science is an intricate database, so be sure to play around with it for a while until you understand how it works.

Google Scholar

This free research tool http://scholar.google.com also provides citation links and citation counts for scholarly works, including journal articles, proceedings, theses, dissertations, and book chapters. The citation counts and links are not as reliable as those in Web of Science, but are still very useful. Try looking up the Herbert Simon article in Google Scholar.