Researching East Asia, Part 5: Citation Indexes

A Guide to Library Resources

Spring 2009

The glory of citation indexes is that they can help you update an older article that is precisely on your topic.  The premise for a citation index is that a good article is referred to in more current research.  Articles are cited for a variety of reasons -- content covered, methodology used, or because the author or his/her friends are feeling the need to beef up their reputations (based, in part, on how much their research has been used by others).  So you will get red herrings, and it is possible your favorite article or book was never cited.  But, we'll be upbeat about the possibilities!

First, do your research.  If you have older articles (generally at least 3 years old) and you would like to see updates of the research contained, go to

First, use one of the suggested databases on your handout to search by subject.  Identify citations, retrieve materials, read and evaluate.  If you find a useful article about 3-10 years old, have the complete citation in hand and take it to Web of Knowledge, accessible on the Research Finding Tools Page from the Libraries Home Page.

For instance, I found this reference in AnthroSource:

Incorporating a Malaysian Nation Thomas Williamson Cultural Anthropology. Aug 2002, Vol. 17, No. 3: 401-430.

Second, on the Web of Knowledge home page, look at the yellow tabs on top for the link to Web of Science. Then just below the new yellow tabs, click on "Cited Reference Search."

This is a very fussy database.  I recommend you:

Type the author name in caps.  Then add a space (no comma) and the first initial followed by an * (no matter how much is provided in the citation)

WILLIAMSON T*

For the journal you need to click on the link to the Thompson ISI List of Journal Abbreviations, find the title and copy the abbreviated form to the second box. If (and only if) your journal doesn't appear in this list, leave the journal box blank.

CULT ANTHROPOL

Then add the year, and click Search.

If you're successful, there will be one or more empty "select" box(es) and the citation you put in.  Check the "select" box for all those which are the citation you want (may be a variety due to typos) and move to the bottom of the page and click on "finish search."

click on the linked title to get the full record:

The "Already surmounted" yet "Secretly familiar": Malaysian identity as symptom

Author(s): Willford A

Source: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY     Volume: 21     Issue: 1     Pages: 31-59     Published: FEB 2006

Times Cited: 0      References: 65

Abstract: Hindu reform-inspired movements and artistic organizations produce a multicultural and multiethnic narrative for Malaysia that simultaneously asserts difference while negating both the state-sponsored and stereotypical boundaries of ethnic demarcation. An exacerbated uncertainty of identity among Indians and Malays, as perceived by elite Indians, produces a struggle for symbolic autonomy or transcendence from the ethnosymbolic ordering of the nation-state. This, ironically, manifests itself in a fetishistic hold of ethnic ideology, despite its ostensible negation by elite Hindus in Malaysia. This process is instructive for an understanding of the local contingencies of identity formation, particularly in its fixated-on form. [Hinduism, Malaysia, nationalism, ethnicity, psychoanalysis].

 

In Sum: You now have a new article from 2006 which is on the same topic. In addition, you have access to Willford's bibliography which may include articles of use to you. There may not have been time for Willford to have been cited yet, but if there had been, there would be a link to all the items which have cited Willford, too.

A great resource, but remember, it's dependent on people being cited!