Who's citing my book?
Some faculties are prolific in producing journal articles while for others the primary method of communicating knowledge is via book publications.
Locating references to your book title or journal article within a book's reference list or bibliography is one method of assessing your impact. At present there is no Library database equivalent to Web of Science that identifies citing references for book citations unless they appear in the journal article's reference list. Information from books can take years even decades to gain citation momentum, hence formal citation databases are yet to be constructed for this medium of knowledge transfer.
Some organisations such as Google Book Search, a9.com and Google Scholar, provide some access to references within the collection of their scanned online books or articles. This is a crude method of searching, but is useful in the absence of a formal system.
Google Book Search
Google Book Search provides access to millions of online book pages. Start with this site as it provides the better search engine with clear results. For more information about Google Book Search read News & Views.
- Let's say we want to identify who is citing the book Minefields and Miniskirts by Siobhan McHugh...
- In the search box type the author's name and initial using inverted commas with the first word from the book title, for example, "mchugh s" minefields
- Click on the title of the book to view where the words appear
- Some titles require you to sign in, scroll down the page to access the link Create a Google Account. This process is required due to copyright restrictions. For more information view the Google explanation Why do I have to log in to see certain pages?
Note: depending on your search results, try removing quotes from your search.
a9.com
a9.com is affiliated with Amazon.com. and includes third part web navigation tools such as Alexa.com
- Let's say we want to identify who is citing the book Global Spin by Sharon Beder...
- In the search box type the author's name and initial in inverted commas with the first word of the book, for example, "beder s" global
- Once the results appear, check the left hand side and ensure the boxes are ticked under Quick start
- Click on the title link
- Use the mouse and roll over the book icon. A pop up window appears. At Search inside this book, type the author name again, for example, beder. Click on GO
Note: not all titles allow you to search inside the book
Google Scholar
Searching for book titles may yield results that do not include books.
- Let's say we want to identify who is citing the book Global Spin by Sharon Beder...
- In the with all of the words search box type the book title, for example, global spin
- In the exact phrase search box type the author's name and initial, for example, beder s
- Click on Search Scholar
Note: depending on your search results, try removing quotes from your search
Web of Science
Web of Science uses a specific list of refereed journal titles for citation analysis. Book citations from all disciplines may be tracked however results are limited to books which are cited in the journals' references in the list above.
- Let's say we want to identify who is citing the book Global Spin by Sharon Beder...
- Click on Cited Reference Search
- In Cited Author type the author's name and initial with an asterix, for example, beder s*
- In Cited Work type the first word of the book with an asterix, for example, global*
Note: do not add a year. If the first word is handbook, try typing hbk*
- Click on Search
- Under Select tick the appropriate cited works and click on Finish Search. The results show all the authors that have cited that book in their journal articles.
Book reviews
Search for reviews of your book in newspapers or journal articles.
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