Writing a Literature Review in the Arts and Humanities

Two common ways for tracking references or citations to specific authors and/or articles:

1. Forward chaining:
Some databases and Google Scholar offer features like 'Cited By' that show what later works cited the book or article in question.  Resources that offer this feature include:

• Google Scholar 
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

2. Backward chaining:
Use an article/book for a starting point. Review "References" "Bibliography" or "Works Cited" section of the publication. Trace back and locate the previous publications on the subject, by searching article databases, library catalogs or Google Scholar. 

For example, if a paper on Sophocles Electra was published in 2007, use the backward chaining method to locate the works published in or before 2007. Use the forward chaining method to find the publications that cited the 2007 paper. The publications were most likely to be published in or after 2007. Use both backward and forward chaining methods to identify a citation network. 

1) At Google Scholar, enter keywords 

2) Once you locate the most relevant article, click "Cited by" or"Related articles" under the search result to explore similar articles.