Using physics literature to ground your research: Finding & discovering new articles

Building on an article you've found

Citation searching can run forwards or backwards in time.

• Backward citation searching uses the references an article has cited. If the original article is interesting, what they used (probably) will be too. Some databases will provide automatic links, but you can also search based on entries in a bibliography or reference list.
• Forward citation searching is done using databases to find out who has used an article you've found since it's been published. It's a useful tool if someone has given you a classic article, or an article they think will be helpful to your project, so you can find the most current resources.

Searching for new articles

• Searching databases ranging from ArXiv to Google Scholar to specialized databases can help you discover new articles, learn about new fields and ensure you've identified all the relevant literature for a literature review.
• There are two types of searching:
  • Searching metadata (usually title, abstract, journal title, and keywords)
  • Searching full text
  • Each are helpful for different reasons. When you know very specific terms in your field, full text searching is helpful. Before you know them, searching metadata can help streamline results.

Browsing

• The more familiar you get with your field, the more you'll learn what journals are important to keep up with or  which publish articles interesting to you. Several tools can help with this.
  • Most journals and publishers will allow you to set up alerts when a new issue is published
  • CU subscribes to a service called BrowZine, which you can use to set up a virtual bookshelf of journals.