Human Rights & IGMAP

Why use the Reference List / Cited By lists

As a scholar, being able to mine the reference list of the research you find is a valuable and time-saving tool for your own research.  By looking over the works cited / reference lists of the works, you can start to: 

• Notice trends in authors and works of importance in your field. 
• Identify methodologies and frameworks that are commonly used.
• Source works that you can then read for your own use. 

Keep in mind that the when you use this research method: 

• Always pay attention to dates, as you are going further back in time from the source material
• It is important to locate and read the work yourself and not rely on the few points brought out by others' writing if you intend to use it in your own work.   If you can not obtain the material, all writing citation  styles (such as APA) provide guidance on how to make this clear in your citation and writing, so that you don't plagiarize or cite it incorrectly. 

How to search for items in the Reference List:

There are multiple ways that this can be done, depending on where you are starting from, so this just provides some general tips. 

• Some of the Libraries' databases  will provide a link to the reference list / citations when you are viewing the article information. This will list the reference list, along with full text links or the Get it@BU/Request feature so that you request items not in full text. 
   
• When this is not available, you can cut and paste the book title (for all books or book chapters) or the article title directly into the Libraries "everything" search on the Libraries' homepage.   If it does not return any results, try clicking the checkbox in the left column to "expand results to outside the Libraries."
   
• If are using the Libraries' Find it! search, then you will see a red downward facing arrow that you can click on to get to the reference list. 
   
• If you are using Google Scholar through the Libraries' Databases, then the Reference lists of articles will link to items that the Libraries' have available. 

Going forward in time: the Cited in / Cited by feature 

In many places, a link will be present that says "Cited by" or "Cited in."   This encourages the scholar to look for research that uses the original literature in references; therefore allowing the scholar to look for related research going forward in time.    The searching tips and citation caveats used above still apply.

Search tools for citation-lead searching