Research Guides Home: Scholarly Impact: Find Article Citations

Finding article citations using Google Scholar

GoogleScholar - https://scholar.google.com/ - is likely the largest citation index. While its true size is unknown, it is estimated that it contains over 160 million records. Use GoogleScholar to find citation counts for:

Articles in all disciplines
Books
Articles from non-English publications
Theses and Dissertations

To find article citation counts, search for a specific title, author, or keyword. Find the "Cited by" link below the article

This count of citing articles is based on the number of other articles and books indexed within GoogleScholar which cite this work. The scholarly material may be peer-reviewed articles, but it may also be unpublished student works, books, duplicate entries, predatory journal articles, or errors.

Finding other sources of article citations

The list below includes other databases available at the Library or on the web will offer citation counts. These counts are contextual to the source. For example, the Times Cited counts in a database like PsycINFO will only include the number of times the article has been cited within PsycINFO.

PsycInfo (APA) This link opens in a new window
The largest database in Psychology. If an article result has been cited, a link for "Times Cited" will appear below the result.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary database indexing more than 13,800 journals. Like most Ebsco databases, if an article has a citation count, it will appear below the result as "Times Cited".
MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
A mathematics database indexing research and reviews. Users can sort by citation counts, and individual articles will display citation counts by references separately from reviews.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Proquest Central covers most of the Proquest content offered, and--like Ebsco databases--will include citation counts under article results, if any are present. The count will display as "Cited by".
Databases provided by the Arkansas State Library [ASL] Traveler project are funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (Grant LS-00-14-0004-14) and the Arkansas Department of Education.
American Chemical Society Publications This link opens in a new window
Collection of journals of the American Chemical Society. You must select the article, and then click "Citing Articles". This will display citing articles, but ACS will not provide a total count.

Tips for Understanding Citation Counts

CONTEXT IS KEY - Results will vary across citation indexes. An article citation count in Google Scholar will not be the same as the count in Web of Science
There is no ONE true count. Not all of scholarship is contained within one, online system.
It is more difficult to get proper citation counts for older research. Much of it is not yet online nor adequately indexed online.
Newer research will not have high citation counts--publishing and impact takes time
Certain disciplines, like medical sciences, lend themselves to higher citation counts because their publishing frequency is heavier and more rapid. Other disciplines do not use journal articles as the primary vehicle for scholarly activity. It is not accurate to compare research across disciplines.
Review articles are often more cited than original research articles because they summarize many papers. Original research will garner more citations than replication studies.

Where is Scopus?

Scopus is a comparable product to Web of Science and is not available at the Ross Pendergraft Library. While Web of Science is larger in size and there is some overlap, there may be content uniquely indexed by Scopus. If you are having trouble finding resources in Web of Science, please contact one of the librarians who may be able to help.