Citation chaining procedure

Definition

In citation chaining, one journal article links you to another, which links you to another, and so on to create a chain of relevant literature.

This is a useful research tactic when we are working on a literature review since it helps us follow chains of related sources.

For example, let's say we've found a relevant annual review article on our topic. We can make a chain of citations leading from that one article both forwards and backwards from the year of publication.

Procedure

Let’s say we’re reading Miles Hewstone’s annual review article, Intergroup Bias.

On page 585, we read the following:

“determines whether social categorization results in bias (Oakes 2001). Some scholars argue that in-group identification and bias should be positively related (Hinkle & Brown 1990; cf. Turner & Reynolds 2001), with the theoretical assumption being that identification drives out-group attitudes, rather than vice versa (Jetten et al. 1997; see Duckitt & Mphuthing 1998 for evidence of the reverse causal direction, at least for disadvantaged and subordinate group members). Correlational data point to only a weak and unstable association (Hinkle & Brown 1990, Mullen et al. 1992), but experimental data show that manipulations of identification can increase bias (Branscombe & Wann 1994, Perreault & Bourhis 1999; see also Bourhis et al. 1997).” (Highlighted portions: the full sentence beginning with “Some scholars argue that in-group identification and bias should be positively related…” through “…disadvantaged and subordinate group members),” including the citation “Duckitt & Mphuthing 1998.”)

This argument is related to our first independent variable.
Now, we’re interested in this argument/evidence which is made by four different authors. We want to read only one or all of them too.
For this guideline, we will choose the highlighted one. We go to the references (literature cited or bibliography) section (at the very end of the article) and find the title of this study.
We need to make sure it’s a peer-reviewed journal article:
1. [How to determine peer-reviewed journal articles?]

“Duckitt J., Mphuthing T. 1998. Group identification and intergroup attitudes: a longitudinal analysis in South Africa. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 74:80–85.”

Before we find Duckitt’s article, we continue reading the annual review article by Hewstone to find more relevant arguments.

On page 586, we read the following:

“Analyses of xenophobia and hate crimes against social and ethnic minorities provide extra-laboratory evidence of the role of threat. Perceived threat and incidence of violence is greatest when there is a conjunction of faltering economic growth and a high percentage of immigrant minorities (Quillian 1995), with bias fomented by far-right political elites (Green et al. 1998, Pettigrew 1998a).” (Highlighted portion: the full sentence shown above, including the in-text citation “Quillian 1995”.)

We can benefit from this argument for our second independent variable.
That argument belongs to three authors and is relevant to our study too, that’s why we go to the references and find the title as well. We’ll go with Quillian.

“Quillian L. 1995. Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. Am. Soc. Rev. 60:586–611.”

Before we find Quillian’s article, we continue reading the annual review article by Hewstone to find one more relevant argument.

On page 593, we read the following:

“Cross-cutting social identities or role assignments manipulated as part of cooperative intergroup contact are especially effective, increasing intracategory differentiation and decreasing perceived intercategory differences (Ensari & Miller 2001; Marcus–Newhall et al. 1993).” (Highlighted portion: the full sentence shown above, including the in-text citations “Ensari & Miller 2001” and “Marcus–Newhall et al. 1993”.)

Thanks to this argument, we have decided to change our third independent variable.
This argument belongs to two authors. We go to the references and find it as well. We’ll go with Ensari & Miller, because the other one is a book chapter. We should only look for peer-reviewed journal articles.
1. [How to determine peer-reviewed journal articles?]

“Ensari N., Miller N. 1998. Effect of affective reactions by the out-group on preferences for crossed categorization discussion partners. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 75:1503–27.”

Citation chain figure

Our current citation chain looks like this:

A simple diagram shows “Hewstone (2002)” on the left with arrows pointing to three studies on the right: “Duckitt (1998),” “Ensari & Miller (2001),” and “Quillian (1995),” illustrating how one source leads to related references.

If we like, we can continue the citation chaining by reading Hewstone, Duckitt, Quillian, and Ensari & Miller, and add more chains.

How to find articles

We will find the full PDF versions of these three articles.
We will paste the DOI (the most preferred way) or title of the articles into scholar.google.com.
1. [How to find DOI?]
If we see [PDF] on the right side, we have access. We click on [PDF], not the title.