The snowballing technique involves two approaches. First, you scour the references section of articles that you have already included in the review. Second, you can use certain citation tracking databases to identify articles that have subsequently cited papers that you have included in the review. The first approach works back in time from the article, whilst the second approach works forward in time from that same article.  Some databases allow you to undertake this process electronically.

You should perform both reference tracking and citation tracking for every article that you deem relevant for the review.  Make a list of the articles that you find by snowballing and include this table in your protocol/plan.

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The text on this page was created by Professor David Denyer, Professor of Organizational Change, Cranfield School of Management.