About CitationNet

CitationNet is a platform that makes it easy to visualize the connections between publications over time.

Enter a PubMed ID and CitationNet builds an interactive map of the papers around it — what it cites, what cites it, and how they connect over time.

Open the Search page  →

How it works

The Input box: one or more PubMed IDs typed into a text area, with an Example button below that loads a sample ID.
01
Enter PubMed IDs
Type one or more PubMed IDs into the Input box — or hit Example to drop in a sample ID.
The filter controls: a degree filter, a direction (references backward, citations forward, or both), a depth, a maximum node count, and an optional year range, with an Update button.
02
Choose filters
Set the direction — references, citations, or both — the depth, a node limit, and an optional year range, then press Update.
A citation network laid out by year, newest at the top and oldest at the bottom; a star marks the paper you searched for, node colour shows the publication year and node size the citation count.
03
Analyse the results
Explore the network laid out by year, open any node for its details, then scan or Download the results table.

Searches run live against OpenAlex; large networks can take up to a few minutes to build.

What it does

CitationNet looks each work up in the OpenAlex scholarly database, matched to its PubMed ID, then assembles the works around it into a single network. How you search shapes what you get back:

A single PubMed ID
Returns the query plus the papers connected to it, walked up to two hops outward — references, citations, or both, depending on the direction you choose.
Single PMID query on a time axis: the query paper sits in the centre; to the left (older) are References (backward) — the papers it cites and the papers those cite, two hops; to the right (newer) are Citations (forward) — the papers that cite it and the papers that cite those; Both fetches the left and right sides together.
Multiple PubMed IDs
Returns the queries plus the papers one hop out in your chosen direction, surfacing the shared and overlapping references (or citations) that tie those papers together.
Multiple PMID query on a time axis: two query papers sit in the centre; to the left (older) are References (backward) — the papers they cite, one hop, with shared references linking the seeds; to the right (newer) are Citations (forward) — the papers that cite them; Both fetches the left and right sides together. Multiple queries expand one hop in each direction versus two for a single query.

How to read the graph

The network is drawn with a Cerebral layout. Every work sits in a horizontal band for its publication year — newest at the top, oldest at the bottom — so following an edge downward means tracing a citation back through time.

2024 2021 2018 2014 Publication year — newest (top) to oldest (bottom)
A schematic of the layout. Here the star is selected, so it, the two works it links to, and the links between them are drawn in red.
Star — a publication you searched for, drawn with a bold dark outline.
Node size — the citation count; more-cited works appear larger.
Node colour — the publication year; each year band has its own colour.
Red highlight — select a node and it, its neighbours, and the links between them light up red, tracing its connections.
Red node — a retracted work, shown in red so you can treat it with caution.
Grey edges — each one is a citation; arranged in time, together they form the network.

Working with your results

  • Tap a node for a popup with its title, source, and date, the works it cites and is cited by, a link to OpenAlex (and PubMed when available), and a button to re-search from that work.
  • Filter by node degree — the number of in-network connections — to hide loosely connected works and let dense graphs breathe.
  • Read the results table listing each work’s identifier, title, year, and its in-network counts — how many works cite it and how many it cites.
  • Download the whole network as a file; works are identified by PubMed ID where they have one, and by OpenAlex ID otherwise.

Why it is useful

Laid out in time, a literature reveals its own shape. Two patterns are worth watching for.

Hubs and reviews
Works that cite many others in the network are often reviews or synthesis points that map the field.
Foundational works
Works cited by many others are likely the foundations a field keeps returning to.
Build your first network  →

Credits & data

OpenAlex
Citation data comes from the OpenAlex scholarly database.
PubMed
You search by PubMed ID, and works that have one link back to PubMed; the rest fall back to OpenAlex.
CitationNet
Networks are visualized with Cytoscape.js and CerebralWeb.
Background patterns are from Toptal SubtlePatterns.

Please review the Terms of Use before using CitationNet.