You can branch outward from the seed study's own reference list, similar-article links, and concept or attribute filters, then screen each candidate against the seed's methods and population to build a shortlist without forward citations. The steps below use features documented in the PubMed User Guide, the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph API, and the OpenAlex search documentation.
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Mine the seed's backward references. Open the seed record and read its reference list. Each reference is a study the seed authors judged relevant, so it gives you candidates even when almost no later papers cite the seed. Expected result: a first batch of older or foundational studies.
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Pull similar-article links. In PubMed, use the similar-article links attached to a record to surface related papers. In Semantic Scholar, the recommendation API returns related papers for a given paper. Expected result: candidates that share subject matter with the seed but sit outside its citation neighborhood.
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Search by concept and attributes. Use OpenAlex filters to narrow works by attributes such as authorship, concepts, dates, and open-access status, and use its text search to match terms across entity fields. In PubMed, combine field tags, phrase searching, and filters in Advanced Search to target the seed's topic. Expected result: a broader pool you can sort by relevance or date.
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Screen against the seed's methods and population. For each candidate, compare the study design, sample or population, and key variables with the seed. Keep papers that match on the dimensions your draft depends on; set aside those that differ in population or method unless you need them as contrast. Expected result: a shortlist of genuinely comparable studies.
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Save and refine the search. PubMed supports saved searches, so you can rerun the same query as your draft evolves. Expected result: a repeatable search you can update rather than rebuild.
A practical boundary: similar-article links and recommendation outputs propose candidates, so confirm each one's methods and population from the paper itself before citing it as related work.