1. A computerized reference analysis system comprising: a database storing a digital representation of references in a collection of references, each reference being an instantiation of information for a patent, patent application, publication, presentation, recording, use, or sale that is publicly accessible as of a date and can include further information of other references cited by the reference; a harvesting engine comprising a harvesting processor and a harvesting memory, the harvesting engine configured to: create a root and branch tree structure database from the database, the root and branch tree structure database storing the collection of references as root references and branch references based on citations of the respective references; receive at least one input for the generation of a seed set of potentially relevant references, interface with the root and branch tree structure database; search the root and branch tree structure database for relevant references, according to the seed set for a selectable number of generational levels of root references and branch references in the root and branch tree structure database; and de-duplicate the relevant references; a ranking engine comprising a ranking processor and a ranking memory, the ranking engine configured to interface with the relevant references and order the relevant references as a set of ranked references; and a graphical user interface configured to present access to at least one of the relevant reference or the set of ranked references.