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Physics Research Tutorial
Tracking Citations
If you have already found relevant materials, the citations in those sources are a great way to expand your bibliography. Journal abbreviations are often used in citations and can be misleading. A complete alphabetical list of journal abbreviations and their corresponding titles can be found at: Journal abbreviations.

The primary source for citation searching in the sciences is ISI's Science Citation Index Expanded. You can search for articles themselves, citations of an article, or citations of a specific author. Though not an absolute certainty, the number of citations of a given article can help indicate how influential it has been. The articles that cite the original article could also be useful sources.

Search Tip:
The ISI Citation Databases index surnames and only the initials of first and middle names. If you are looking for a specific author, your search will often be more accurate if you enter all known initials. ISI's new Author Finder feature may also be helpful when searching for a researcher with a common name.
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