TREND: A tool for rapid online research literature analysis and quantification

The Research Explicator for oNline Databases (TREND) tool was developed out of a need to quantify large research literatures rapidly and objectively on the basis of online research database output. By parsing such output with TREND, a researcher can in minutes extract the most commonly cited articles, the most frequently published authors, a distribution of publication dates, and a variety of other information from a research literature several thousand articles in size. This tool thus enables an increase in productivity both for researchers venturing into new areas of interest and for advisors and instructors putting together core reading lists. The processing of citations from articles represents a unique challenge, however, because deviations from strict APA formatting cause problems that are sometimes difficult to correct mechanically. A case study of one particularly troublesome citation (Baron & Kenny, 1986) is presented. Usage and implications are discussed.