Cited author searching: implications for instruction in forensic psychology.

Cited author database searches are an effective means of identifying a list of references that have 'cited' the works of a particular author. Yet graduate-level instruction on the efficacy of search strategies, when commentary on a specific author are needed, has been largely ignored. This paper presents a framework for cited author searching with an illustrated example in the field of forensic psychology, i.e., bibliographic retrieval of articles that include references to an expert witness's published work. Such applications should facilitate instruction in graduate-level training.

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Specialty areas in the behavioral sciences such as forensic psychology require training and instructional approaches that are highly focused and guided by the professional needs of the field. Even though many graduate psychology programs offer specialty training in the forensics area, pedagogic instruction tends to be traditionally oriented (Hess & Weiner, 1999). For example, online searching strategies are often overlooked in teaching. The current paper illustrates a novel approach on obtaining research on court-related topics which has been largely ignored in the literature to date, i.e., cited author searching.

In the legal arena, it is often necessary for an attorney to challenge the credibility of the oppositions' expert testimony. While many tactics are used to accomplish this goal, an easily overlooked approach in this challenge is conducting a comprehensive review of the witness's previous published work on issues relevant to their current testimony (Piotrowski & Perdue, 2003a). Strategically, the task is to identify conflicting opinions published by the expert witness over time, or the commentary of other authors that provide challenges, critiques, or limitations on the expert witness's prior writings.

Identifying this crucial literature can often be accomplished by conducting an online 'cited reference' search of an appropriate database using the name of the expert witness as a 'cited author.' This type of search is an extremely helpful feature that provides citations to publications that have 'cited' the selected author. Concurrently, instances of the author 'self-citing' his/her prior publications are also identified in such a search. By tracing these cited references, an astute researcher can often locate publications wherein the opposing expert has either contradicted himself/herself or the expert has been challenged with critical analyses on the accuracy or veracity of a particular position or statement by other authors. Identifying instances wherein the witness has published positions contrary to that enunciated in court or in which other experts have published challenges to the validity of such positions can be critical in the cross-examination of expert witnesses or to their pre-trial testimony. Therefore, an investigator may find it advantageous to consider retrieving publications of this nature by performing a 'cited reference' search using the name of the expert witness as the cited author.

Analyzing cited references via these search strategies can result in an effective, complementary means to identifying a particular author's publishing history (Reed & Baxter, 2003). Fortunately, a number of traditional, as well as relatively new databases that provide for such 'cited reference' searching are currently available (see Table 1). For many years, researchers have relied on the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and its premier databases Social SciSearch and SciSearch since these highly respected databases were the first to offer retrieval of articles that cite the works of a specific author (Garfield, 1998). Such tracking of a cited author usually leads to additional, related articles. But as stated above, this is also an excellent, and often overlooked avenue to locating articles in which the testimony of an author-expert witness may be impeached or where the expert witness may be associated with holding contradictory positions. Although the ISI databases still remain the databases of choice for initiating such a 'cited reference' search, there are disadvantages: high cost and the ability to search only for first or senior author cited references. The ISI database service Web of Science (Wiley, 1998), which includes all the ISI citation databases in one file, now offers junior author cited reference searching, although it may be more expensive (depending on institutional subscription level) than searching the individual citation databases through vendors such as DIALOG or DataStar. Since many authors contribute to publications as junior authors it is important to include citation analysis based on junior author when conducting a comprehensive cited author search.

Several other popular databases presently offer cited references for senior as well as junior author publications. Table 1 presents the major indexes offering 'cited reference' searching and notes some attributes and limitations of each file. Of particular note for the forensic investigator is the new 'References (RE=)' advanced search command now available in PsycINFO (Perdue & Piotrowski, 2003). This command produces cited references for senior and junior authors from the extensive PsycINFO source list. It should be noted however, that although this database provides coverage from 1840, cited references are currently only available from 1987 to the present. Depending on the vendor, some articles may have full-text links to the entire article. Similarly, the new full-text PsycARTICLES database provides cited references through its 'References' command for senior as well as junior authors. The source list for this database is very small, but includes APA journals as well as journals published by the Canadian Psychological Association, and the European publisher Hogrefe and Huber (Piotrowski & Perdue, 2003b). In the general science area, the ScienceDirect database, with 1,800 source journals and four million articles, also provides senior and junior author citations by searching the author's name in conjunction with the 'References' search field from a pull-down menu. This extensive database is extremely useful because many of the articles, as well as the cited articles, have full-text links. Subscribers to this service also have potential access to other useful sources depending on their subscription level, such as PsycARTICLES and a number of online full-text reference books, including the 11-volume Comprehensive Clinical Psychology, Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy, and the 25-volume International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (with 4,000 signed articles). These additional reference sources could also be of assistance to the forensic investigator seeking comment on the work of an expert witness.

Clearly, the researcher in need of scholarly commentary on the prior publications of expert witnesses should consider a cited reference review of the literature. The databases discussed in this paper are the major bibliographic tools, currently available, to the astute forensic investigator. Relying on such retrieval strategies should enhance graduate-level instruction.

Table 1 Online Databases that Offer 'Cited Reference' Searching

Database                    Highlights

PsycARTICLES (1987+)        full text
                            junior author references
PsycINFO (1987+)            extensive source list
                            'cited by' feature
                            junior author references
SciSearch (1974+)           extensive source list
ScienceDirect (1967+)       partially full text
Social SciSearch (1972+)    extensive source list

Database                    Limitations

PsycARTICLES (1987+)        limited size
PsycINFO (1987+)            cited references only
                            since 1987; database
                            dates from 1840
SciSearch (1974+)           comparatively costly
                            junior author citations
                            only available through
                            Web of Science (1945+)
ScienceDirect (1967+)       focus on science
Social SciSearch (1972+)    comparatively costly
                            junior author citations
                            only available through
                            Web of Science (1956+)

References

Garfield, E. (1998). From citation indexes to informatics: Is the tail now waging the dog? Libri, 48, 67-80.

Hass, A. K., & Weiner, I. B. (Eds.) (1999). The handbook of forensic psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Perdue, B.,& Piotrowski, C. (2003). Citation searching: A new feature in PsycINFO. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96, 1237-1238.

Perdue, B., & Piotrowski, C. (2002). e-psyche: An adjutant database for the behavioral sciences? Psychology and Education--An Interdisciplinary Journal, 39, 65-66.

Piotrowski, C., & Perdue, B. (2003a). Benefits of multidatabase searching: A forensic case study. Psychological Reports, 92, 881-882.

Piotrowski, C., & Perdue, B. (2003b). The PsycARTICLES database: Attributes and limitations. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 97, 993-994.

Reed, J. G., & Baxter, P. M. (2003). Citation searching. In J. G. Reed & P. M. Baxter (Eds.), Library use: Handbook for psychology (pp. 97-102). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Wiley, D. L. (1998). Cited references on the web: A review of ISI's web of science. Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, 6, 32-39, 57.

Bob Perdue, John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida. Chris Piotrowski, Research Consultant, Department of Psychology, University of West Florida.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Bob Perdue, John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida, 11,000 University Parkway, Pensacola, FL 32514; Email: [e-mail]