LInda -- as far as I can tell, there is no _software package_ entitled
"citation index." However, for several decades now, the Institute for
Scientific Information (ISI) has published Science Citation Index (and
Social SCI and Arts & Humanities CI) in hard copy, as machine-searchable
files on major database vendors, and most recently on CD-ROM. The SCI
indexes articles from about 4K journals covering all of science &
engineering -- the "top" journals in each knowledge domain (as determined
by their analyses, which are excellent). The advantage over such major
tools as Biological Abstracts (which covers approx 9-12K journals & non-
journal sources in the life sciences) is that you can find current articles
based on the references they contain. This is an excellent way to
supplement any subject search -- as , for instance, searching Chemical
Abstracts (I note that your return address is "acs"). If you were interested
in recent research on "buckytubes," you can search the "natural language,"
the "CA controlled vocabulary" (in the Index Guide and in the Chemical
Substance Index) AND by turning to SCI, find articles citing the major
early paper but that might not use the appropriate terminology or be in a
CA indexed journal (I know that's hard to believe, but...) By using
the SCI on CD-ROM, you can also find other recent papers that share
references in common with one current "on target" paper (a feature called
"related references."
There is ample evidence that, as a rule, you can find relevant papers
via citation searching that cannot be found in a vocabulary/descriptor
based search [and vice versa] -- Miranda Pao (U Michigan) and I have
written on this topic fairly extensively.
Does this help at all? I did search the standard software files and found
nothing commercial. If there is some shareware out there, I apologise to
the writer (and advise him or her that violation of copyright is looming).
Kate McCain "bibliometrics R us"
College of Information Studies
Drexel University
Philadelphia , PA 19104
mccainkw at duvm.ocs.drexel.edu
