Citations searching in Literature Reviews

Abstract

The burgeoning wealth of available scientific information aided in part by (a) expansion in the definition of literature, (b) dramatic increase in the scientific output available for the scientific community's perusal, and (c) ease of access afforded by various databases and search engines poses several challenges to researchers and to the credibility of their research findings. One method to discourage reference to fraudulent, incomplete, or obsolete data in the literature is citations searching. This paper presents a short overview of citations searching, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its implications for stakeholders in the academic community.