To find out how many times an article has been cited when using the EBSCO databases (Ex: Academic Search Complete), follow these steps:
Step 1)
Enter the information about the article [or your topic - in this example I am searching for articles on "peer mentoring in higher education"] into the Advanced Search search bar. Be sure to put the title or search term between quotation marks so that the words will be searched for as a phrase!
Next, be sure to choose an area for the drop-down menu on the right [it will say 'Select a Field' if left empty]. Since I am searching by general topic for this example, I chose SU Subject Terms. If you know the name of the article, choose TI Title.
If you know the Author's last name for your article, input that in the second search bar next to the 'AND' . Choose AU Author in the second drop-down menu after you have entered the Authors name. Finally, click on the boxes labeled 'Full Text' and 'Peer Reviewed' to further filter your results.
Step 2)
Once your search results page loads, the number of citations that are indexed by the database for a specific article will be shown below the article's information (see highlighted and circled sections in the Screenshot for Step 2). The number of citing documents is hyperlinked and will take you to a list where you can see and potentially access the full text of those additional resources.
The References link for the article refers to how many articles a particular article cites [i.e., how many entries are on their own article's reference list].
Step 3)
After you click on the article of your choosing, the Times Cited sources will appear on the left-hand side of the screen. In some cases where there is no Times Cited, this area will be blank. Otherwise there will be one - or all - of these options:
Plumx Metrics: a tool found in EBSCO Databases that link the reader to several different kinds of metric information, including 'Times Cited' (to see more on how to use Plumx Metrics, click here).
'Times Cited in this Database': connects you to other articles within the EBSCO database that cite the article that you have chosen (see Step 4 for more information).
Article Linker: a tool that guides you through the three ways to retrieve the Full Text of the article you need when there is no link provided (to see more on how to use Article Linker, click here).
Step 4)
This step shows the result of clicking on the 'Times Cited in this Database' option. For this example, only one other article cited the one I chose. However, this new article has over 200 other citations, is cited in the EBSCO database 6 times, and has the Full Text available. This new article can be a wonderful source of information and may prove even more informative than my original query.
