User:Treebranch1789/sandbox

Issues

Another issue is citation politics, which describes how citation shapes power structures by dictating the legitimacy of published authors and their work. As ideas are frequently reproduced through citation, they accrue increasing intellectual value. Research suggests that the number of times that an academic article gets cited has a direct impact on the author’s academic prestige and recognition, promotion opportunities, and potential impact in their respective fields.

However, evidence suggests that external factors may influence the likelihood of a paper  getting cited. For example, citation counts have been shown to favor researchers from the Global North and thus can undervalue researchers from the Global South and from minority communities. In addition, male names tend to get cited more frequently than female names. Smith and Garrett-Scott have argued that black women in the anthropological field are rarely ever cited by non-black women. The Matthew Effect (Matthew) and The Matilda Effect (Matilda) also describe phenomena to this effect.

Researchers have suggested combating citation politics with the use of a Citation Diversity Statement, a statement that would include the proportions of citations used in a scholarly article in terms of gender, race, and/or ethnicity. Another option is the formation of campaigns like #CiteBlackWomen that promote awareness of citational disparity.