Ask HN: How to find research on a certain topic

For example, I would like to find research (academic or otherwise) on static analysis and structural editing of computer programs.

I have been having trouble finding a direct approach to surface pertinent publications or researchers currently focused on the topic.

So far, my best search strategies have been

(1) starting at a random university‘s computer science department site, finding groups in adjacent topics like Programming Language (PL) and/or Program Verification, and scouring for relevant publications.

(2) finding conferences where there’s a chance such topics could come up and looking at historical entries. For the topics above, I often come back to venues such as the European Lisp Symposium and Strange Loop.

I haven’t had much success searching ieee. And following a paper’s citations generally leads to past works, whereas I’m interested in what’s recent.

Is there a better way? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!