Finding a Paper's Subject Based on Cited and Citing Papers

A series of experiments designed to examine the most effective way of presenting information in a list of search results, found that presenting the subject of the paper can be of benefit to the user. Several sources can be used to find the paper’s subject, including citation elements found in a list of papers. The purpose of the study was to examine what constitutes the optimal elements in a list of citations for finding the paper’s subject. The value of terms derived from the papers cited in the source article (title) and key works are ranked highest while journal name and author are less informative.