Also known as: citation searching, citation chaining, reference list checking
Backward citation searching in Scopus
1. Copy the title of the article and search for the citation in Scopus (first choice) or Google Scholar (if not found in Scopus)
Note: In Scopus, it is best to delete out any punctuation like -, ?, etc. from a title. Sometimes searching the first part of a long title (before the colon) works better too.
2. Click the title to go to the citation record
3. Scroll to the bottom to see a list of references from the article
4. Review the citations and make note of any titles/abstracts that appear relevant to the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Cross reference the accompanying spreadsheet of all citations previously screened to make sure the citation hasn’t already been screened. If there is one that appears relevant that hasn’t previously been screened, add the citation to Covidence (or any tool you are using to screen citations).
Forward citation searching in Scopus
5. Scroll back up to the top of the page and look to the right side of the page for any citing articles. Click “View all….articles” to review citations that have cited the included publication
The forward citations are also available from the results page if you click the number under 'Cited By'
6. Review the citations and make note of any titles/abstracts that appear relevant to the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Cross reference the accompany spreadsheet of all citations previously screened to make sure the citation hasn’t already been screened. If there is one that appears relevant that hasn’t previously been screened, add the citation to Covidence (or any tool you are using to screen citations).
7. Repeat for remaining subset of included articles.
If an article cannot be found in Scopus – use Google Scholar
If an article cannot be located in Scopus, search for it in Google Scholar for forwards citation searching (see below). For backwards citation searching, you will have to manually look at the reference list in the article/pdf.
