Evaluating Sources: Citation Activism

This guide provides tools to help you evaluate sources you find in your research while incorporating elements of social justice.

Activism through Citation Title

In its first two tabs, this guide provides strategies for evaluating sources and encourages critical thinking on how privilege and social justice issues intersect with research. This tab builds on those first two and provides information on how to turn that critical thought into important action. If you haven't already explored the ACT UP and P is for Privilege pages, you are encouraged to visit them first to provide context for the information below.

Citation Activism

Why Who You Cite Matters

One way that articles, research, and authors are evaluated is by the number of times their work is cited. Their work is considered more impactful, and ultimately more important, the more it is cited. Unfortunately, due to privilege and systemic discrimination described on the P is for Privilege page, the authors published in more traditionally prestigious journals are lacking in diversity.

The more an article or author is cited, the easier it will be to find their work and cite it again, creating a circular situation where the more privileged authors continue to gain more and more notoriety and acclaim while authors from less privileged groups are excluded. This creates a lack of diverse perspectives in academic scholarship and in your own research. Ultimately this cycle hinders our ability to comprehensively study a subject as groups are missing from the conversation.

What Can You Do?

The good news is you can use your citations as an act of activism by going the extra mile to include sources written by members of underrepresented groups. There are several resources listed on the right for finding diverse scholars with expertise and published works spanning many academic disciplines.

Want to work against privilege in access to information as well? Try including citations to works that have been published in open access journals! Open Educational Resources (OER) provide scholarly articles and high quality information without the paywall so that everyone can access the information. Try searching in an OER database listed in this guide.

Resources for Diverse Citations

Link Gallery

Women Also Know Stuff

Our searchable database helps academics and journalists identify and connect with women academics conducting research on a multitude of issues related to the study of politics.

People of Color Also Know Stuff

People of Color Also Know Stuff provides a directory of experts of color in political science. Their mission is to promote scholars of color in Political Science and serve as an amplifier for efforts to advance racial diversity and inclusion in the discipline. They aim to advance equity that is inclusive of all class backgrounds, gender identities, sexual identities, and institutional contexts.

Rainbow flag blowing in the wind against sunny blue sky

LGBT Scholar Network

A twitter feed highlighting the work of LGBTQ+ scholars across disciplines.

Colorful drawing of young black girl reading with

Cite Black Women

Cite Black Women engages with social media, aesthetic representation (t-shirts) and public dialogue to push people to critically rethink the politics of race gender and knowledge production.

Sourcelist

Sourcelist is a database of qualified experts in technology policy from diverse backgrounds. It is built on the principle that technology policy stands to benefit from the inclusion of the ideas, perspectives, and recommendations of a broader array of people.