From a Citation
If you are trying to locate a specific article starting from a citation (ideally, one with the article's title, author(s), place of publication and date of publication), there are a few different ways you might go about your search:
If you are interested in tracing where an article (or book, or book chapter) has been cited, try searching for it in Google Scholar. You can click on the "cited by" link under the source listing to lead to citations for these citing sources.
Exercise:
1. Brainstorm Questions and Keywords relevant to your topic. You can use a Concept Map to think through your topic: link research questions to key words, think about alternative phrases, broader and narrower terms, and so on.
2. Select a specific database and do the search (see specialized database tab for a shortlist)
3. Keep a Research Log to keep track of your process (and to help prompt you to search strategically)
You can also search CLIO to find books (available through CUL and other partner libraries, and all sorts of other articles using your keywords and using limits!
CLIO is the online search system for Columbia University Libraries (CUL), designed to improve information discovery and deliver enhanced services for students and faculty.
It has several sections that allow you to search various types and sources of information:
Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT (known as Boolean operators) to limit, broaden, or define your search. A good researcher should know how to do a Boolean Search.
AND: Using AND narrows a search by combining terms.
OR: Using OR broadens a search to include results that contain either of the words you're looking for.
NOT: Using NOT will narrow a search by exclusion. (Some search engines, like Google, recognize the minus (-) symbol, instead of the word NOT)
Asterix * For example, therap* will search for therapy, therapies, therapist, therapists, therapeutic, etc.
Quotations: Placing quotations around a specific phrase will help you narrow results in order to find information containing that exact wording.