Anthropology

• For any particular topic, there is a conversation happening as researchers publish and present, and then others respond to or build off of that research.
• Citation chaining is an important way to get in the middle of that conversation.  You want to look carefully at the references cited (which is moving back in time to older research), and you want to follow up with the cited by, or the research that cited what you just read (which is moving forward in time to newer research).
• Get in the middle of that conversation, contribute, and take it one step further.

Download the Word document below. This worksheet walks you through an effective way to conduct a search in Google Scholar. The steps guide you to think critically about your sources and to track the citations both backward and forward.

Here is a simple example of citation chaining. Who is citing whom?