4.3. Citation Politics
About these materials
Welcome! This workshop aims to examine the concept of citational politics, its links to knowledge production and dissemination and learn to use some tools and practices for more conscientious citations. Across different sections, we will think about the what and the why of citations and when to use them, examine the mechanisms and consequences of citational inequities and learn how to conduct a citational self-audit, before wrapping up with a summary exercise. This workshop draws inspiration from Sauvé et al.’s (2025) paper on citational politics.
Who are these materials for?
The target audience of this workshop is threefold:
Educators in higher education (e.g., universities, research institutes) or other teaching contexts aiming to develop their pedagogical skills and leadership skills in the context of Open Research by exploring critical issues connected to both Open Research and teaching Open Research practices to various audiences. You can follow the materials by chronologically going through the slides and following along the practical exercises. You go at your own pace and within your own time frame. Presenter notes will help you to understand and reflect on the content of the materials. Note: Group exercises are not possible in this asynchronous setting.
Educators in higher education (e.g., universities, research institutes) or other teaching contexts aiming to convey this topic to their learners in a synchronous (in-person, virtual or hybrid) class-room setting. The slides can be directly presented in full screen below, with presenter and instructor notes providing guidance about the narrative of the materials and valuable pedagogical tips how to convey the materials to your learners. You can also download the PowerPoint slides corresponding to the materials below and adapt the materials to your learners. Make sure to give appropriate credit to the original authors.
Prerequisites
You will need access to a piece of your own work (a report, essay, journal article, blog post, presentation) containing a bibliography with 10 or more references, preferably in .bib or .txt file format (this is needed for the GBAT assessment).
Learning goals
- Recognize the social and political context of citations
- Explain why citational practices are not neutral
- Identify and describe some of the mechanisms and effects of citational inequities
- Give examples of how consequences of citational disparities impact individuals and the research ecosystem
- Recognize the main stages of research from ideas to producing a report, essay, journal article
- Classify which citational tools and practices can be used during each of the four major research stages: planning, project, paper and publication
- Assess the gender diversity of a bibliography from your own work
- Summarize the key terms relating to citational politics (citations, citational politics, citational cliques)
- Explain how to conduct a self-audit of your citation practices
Materials
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Supplementary files
Practical exercises - solutions
Download the solutions for the practical exercises here:
Helpfiles
Download the csv file for the example data:
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Contributors and licence details
Creator: Middleton, Sara (
0000-0001-5307-8029)
Reviewer: Von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn, Sarah ( 0000-0002-6413-3895)
Consultant: Azevedo, Flavio ( 0000-0001-9000-8513)
This current work by Sara Middleton, Sarah von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn and Flavio Azevedo is licensed under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International SA License. It permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.