Citation justice: wield your power with care

Citations have power. They are “an act of acknowledgement that affirms humanity by recognising the importance of individual and collective contributions to the world” (Christen Smith, in a 2022 webinar). Who is cited in the research literature demonstrates the importance that we place on the contributions those researchers have made. And this is explicitly recognised by the use of citation metrics in research assessments globally.

Sadly, women and people of colour are consistently under-cited, with the disadvantages magnified for those from multiple under-represented groups. The work of white men is more visible in the literature, resulting in even more citations through a Matthew effect while the work of those from under-represented groups is effectively suppressed.

The only way to change this is for individual researchers to practice citation justice, and to use their influence on the wider systematic and institutional culture. As well as uplifting the voices of those who have been traditionally under-represented, the overall quality of research will be improved by ensuring the full range of previous literature has been taking into account.

• Carry out a rigorous literature search, across a range of databases, including those which cover research from the Global South.
• When you find good research from a researcher in an under-represented group, share it with your networks to amplify their voice.
• Keep citation justice in mind when citing others’ work. Are you citing something because it is genuinely the most relevant citation for you, or is it just a well-known and well-cited paper in your field?
• Examine the way you talk about the work you are citing. Do you discuss the work of researchers from some groups differently (in tone, criticism) to others?
• Consider including a citation diversity statement in your next manuscript for publication. For more information and some representative examples, see Citation Diversity Statement in BMES Journals.

There is lots of great work going on around citation justice at the moment. Explore some of these resources for further ideas on how to practice citation justice in your research, and for discussion of the wider issues:

• The LSE blog post on aspirational metrics – a guide for working towards citational justice
• The Maastricht University Citation Guide from Female Empowerment Maastricht University (FEM)
•  Cite Black Women
• The blog post Citational politics from The Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)

How will you embody citation justice in your research practice? How will you influence the citation practice of others in your field?

Helen writes: cut to the chase

Writing Skills Advisor Helen Williams continues her occasional series with this post on editing your writing to keep within the word count.

In the Academic Skills Centre the bulk of our work involves supporting taught students, and with the academic year drawing to a close the most pressing task for students currently is finishing dissertations. Many of my conversations with students inevitably circle back to the topic of editing and an issue that crops up repeatedly is how to meet the word count. Despite doctoral theses usually having a word count many times higher than the average Masters dissertation, keeping within the word count – either for a chapter, or the entire thesis – is still a challenge. No matter how many words are permitted, or how huge that number initially feels, somehow everyone (including me!) always ends up writing too much.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Whilst it’s important to have some practical ways of tackling this (more on that later) I think first it’s helpful to try to reframe how we think about writing, and specifically editing or cutting content. It always feels painful to have to cut words, particularly if whole paragraphs or sections need to be axed. This is most likely content that you spent a considerable amount of time on, and sometimes the temptation is to leave words in simply because of the effort involved in churning them out. The process of ‘writing up’ is also positioned as an end-point, where we write with certainty about what we have done or found. However, it might be more helpful to think of writing, cutting, re-writing and editing as an extension of our thinking or learning about a topic. We constantly reformulate and refine ideas in our mind as we move through the research process, so why not try to view your writing as part of this? Accepting that your writing might keep changing and developing, even into the very final stages prior to submission – and trying to view this as a positive thing – can feel quite liberating. Plus, it will almost always leave you with a superior final product. Whilst re-writing a section over and over might not feel productive, in the long-run it most certainly is. Leaving sub-standard text in because it took you ages to write is not.   

If trying to alter your whole mindset around the writing process feels a bit much right now, here are some more manageable steps to cutting words whilst improving content:

1. Remember your reader(s)
   This should be a straightforward one – your most important readers are the people who will be examining your thesis, as well as your supervisors. Bear them in mind when you are considering what to cut or include. What will they already know, or be familiar with? Every subject has content that is considered ‘common knowledge’, which you shouldn’t need to use up masses of words to explain. Have you included lengthy explanations that you could reduce, for example?
2. What is adding value?
   Think about the balance between descriptive content and that which is more critical. Whilst you always need a bit of description to provide context and background, it’s important that this doesn’t crowd out the space for the more valuable analytical or critical discussion. Read through your chapters with this in mind and try to limit descriptive waffle where possible.  
3. Be brutal
   It seems intuitive to chop words and sentences here and there whilst editing for word count, but this can leave you with lots of different snippets of writing that feel disjointed. Sometimes it’s much easier to identify a paragraph that doesn’t quite work and delete the whole thing. You might be surprised how little difference this can make – especially if it wasn’t great content to begin with. If this cut-throat approach feels a bit too bold, just save all your offcuts in a separate document.

For more word-cutting tips, see the excellent ‘5 Way to Kill your Darlings’ blogpost by the Thesis Whisperer.