UVic Library Search Help

If your search turns up a particularly relevant article or book, examining the sources cited within that work or other sources which cited the work can locate closely related works on the same topic.This technique is called 'citation trailing.'

When we follow a citation trail, we do one of two things:

• Examine the bibliography, references or works cited section of a specific article to identify relevant sources published previously. This is sometimes called Backwards Searching.
• Identify any sources that have cited or referenced a specific article since that article's publication. This is sometimes called Forwards Searching. 

Within Library Search, you can quickly follow a source's citation trail from the search interface.

Conduct a search using your chosen keywords.

Select either of the orange arrow icons at the top right of the resource you are interested in. The arrows facing upwards will lead to a page listing sources which cite the work selected (forwards searching). The downwards-facing arrow will lead to a page listing the sources cited within the work selected (backwards searching).

You can also access these features from the full record page accessed once you click on the title of a resource. Clicking 'Citations' will allow you to forwards or backwards search along a citation trail.

Note that unfortunately, this feature is not available for every resource available through LibrarySearch. Not all sources will display the orange arrows enabling backwards and forwards searches. Some may have only one available, and some may have none. The two sources below will only allow backwards searching, for instance.