citation-chaining-guide
Forward and backward citation chaining techniques for literature search
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill citation-chaining-guide --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Citation Chaining Guide Master forward and backward citation chaining to systematically discover relevant literature by following the threads of scholarly communication. ## What Is Citation Chaining? Citation chaining (also called citation tracking, pearl growing, or snowball searching) exploits the connections between papers through their references and citations. Starting from one or more "seed" papers, you trace connections in two directions: - **Backward chaining**: Examine the reference list of a paper to find older, foundational works it builds upon. - **Forward chaining**: Find newer papers that have cited the seed paper, discovering subsequent developments. This approach is especially powerful when keyword searches fail (e.g., when terminology varies across subfields or when concepts predate standardized vocabulary). ## Step-by-Step Workflow ### Step 1: Identify Seed Papers Select 3-5 highly relevant papers that are central to your research question. Good seed papers are: - Frequently cited review articles or seminal original research - Papers whose methodology or framework aligns closely with your work - Recent papers in top venues for your field ### Step 2: Backward Cha
- What Is Citation Chaining?
- Step-by-Step Workflow
- Step 1: Identify Seed Papers
- Step 2: Backward Chaining (Reference Mining)
- Step 3: Forward Chaining (Citation Tracking)
- Step 4: Co-Citation and Bibliographic Coupling
- Step 5: Iterative Expansion
- Tools for Citation Chaining
- Common Pitfalls
What does the citation-chaining-guide skill do?
Forward and backward citation chaining techniques for literature search
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill citation-chaining-guide --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills, a repository with 3,244 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.