Pearl growing is a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

taken from the process of small bits of sand growing to make a beautiful pearl, which is used in

information literacy The Association of College and Research Libraries defines information literacy as a "set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of infor ...

. This is also called "snowballing", alluding to the process of how a snowball can grow into a big snow-man by accumulating snow. In this context this refers to the process of using one information item (like a

subject term In information retrieval, an index term (also known as subject term, subject heading, descriptor, or keyword) is a term that captures the essence of the topic of a document. Index terms make up a controlled vocabulary for use in bibliographic recor ...

citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...

) to find content that provides more information items. This search strategy is most successfully employed at the beginning of the research process as the searcher uncovers new

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

s about his or her topic.

Citation pearl growing

Citation pearl growing is the act of using one relevant source, or

, to find more relevant sources on a topic. The searcher usually has a document that matches a topic or information need. From this document, the searcher is able to find other keywords, descriptors and themes to use in a subsequent search. Citation Pearl Growing is a popular search and retrieval method used by

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

Subject pearl growing

Subject pearl growing is a strategy used in an

electronic database A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records. This is an organised online collection of references to published written works like journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publicati ...

that has subject or keyword descriptors. By clicking on one subject, the searcher is able to find other related subjects and subdivisions that may or may not be useful to the search.

Internet pearl growing

Searchers use the pearl growing technique when surfing the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Using the theory that websites that link to each other are similar, a searcher can move from site to site, collecting information. Ramer (2005) suggests pearl growing by using the

as a search term in

search engines Search engines, including web search engines, selection-based search engines, metasearch engines, desktop search tools, and web portals and vertical market websites have a search facility for online databases. By content/topic Gene ...

or even in the

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

Systematic literature review pearl growing

In systematic literature reviews, pearl growing is a technique used to ensure all relevant articles are included. Pearl growing involves identifying a primary article that meets the inclusion criteria for the review. From this primary article, the researcher works backwards to find all the articles cited in the bibliography and checks them for eligibility for inclusion in the review. The researcher then works forwards to search for any articles that have cited the primary article. It is estimated that up to 51% of references in a systematic review are identified by pearl growing. There is evidence that using pearl growing for systematic reviews is a more comprehensive approach and more likely to identify all relevant articles compared to online database searches. Pearl growing, when applied to scientific literature, may also be referred to as citation mining or snowballing.

References

External links

Citation Pearl Growing
from Creighton University

by Chun Wei Choo at University of Toronto
Pearl Growing in Systematic Literature Reviews
by Dr Ruth Hadfield at Macquarie University {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl Growing Information science