Finding Seminal Works: Social Sciences

Seminal works are foundational publications that are highly influential and shape a field of study.  Seminal works introduce groundbreaking ideas, establish new methods or challenge existing theories, and are frequently cited for their lasting impact.

Key Characteristics of a Seminal Work:

• It changed or challenged established paradigms.
• It presented a theory, perspective, or findings central to one or more academic debates.
• It introduced critical concepts, methodologies, or findings that shaped successive research.

Because seminal works are highly cited, you will likely stumble across them during the research process. 

adapted from: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=1451569&p=10789620

You can use Google Scholar or Web of Science to locate seminal works on a topic. 

In Google Scholar, search for your topic. The results list will display with the most frequently cited results first:

Clicking on the Cited by link under a result will take you to the list of works that cited that particular source. Clicking on the Related articles link will give you "more like this". 

adapted from: https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/edresearch

In Web of Science start by searching broadly on your topic. Then, click Times Cited to re-sort your results with the most frequently cited sources listed first.

Click on the Times Cited link to the right of a result to pull up the list of sources that cited that particular work. Use the Cited References search tab to find how many times a paper has been cited and by whom. Then use the sorting feature to rank the most highly cited articles among those that cited the original article.

adapted from: https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/edresearch

Other places to explore -