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Searching: what is the snowball search method?

The snowball search method is a way of tracking down related works by using the bibliography or reference list at the end of an article as your starting point. After all, there's a good chance that the sources the author has consulted while writing will be relevant to your own research.

Snowballing will make you go back in time, because literature in the bibliography is always older than the publication itself. In the database Web of Science you'll find these cited works under "cited references".

If you'd rather go forward in time, i.e. consulting works that have cited the article you're currently reading, you should have a look at the citation search method.

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Last modified Sept. 10, 2024, 4:16 p.m.