Inclusive Citations

 You may be asking yourself why including minority research is necessary anyways. I mean who cares about citations? However, dismantling systems of oppression such as the patriarchy or white supremacy have to be done even in the smallest of places to make a greater impact for those who are underrepresented. Including scholarship researched and published by marginalized voices in your own research will not only uplift these communities but offer new perspectives about certain topics and issues that the privileged may not have thought of before. 

As you use the databases and journals provided as well as other journals, databases, and One Search to find articles, think about these questions in order to find inclusive and diverse citations:

• What interesting or new voices could be found about the topic of your research?
• Are there specific groups that your research topic specifically targets?
• What geographical regions may be affected by or have interesting opinions on your research topic?

Contemplate your own biases and beliefs and try to understand new perspectives on a certain topic, even if it goes against your own beliefs about what groups have more knowledge on a specific topic.
 

As you are completing your initial research, check to see if the research you are citing in your papers or other academic work is diverse. As you do this, keep these tips in mind: 

• Avoid tokenism: If you are only including a diverse author just for the sake of having a diverse author, then you are practicing tokenism. Find diverse voices that offer unique perspectives to your work and engage with them to find new meanings and ideas about your topic.
• Acknowledge that any group of people, no matter their background, can have knowledge about a certain topic: Just because someone is of a specific racial group or sexuality does not mean that they don’t have knowledge or aren't capable of bringing forth new ideas to the topics you are researching. Let go of your biases and find new perspectives. 
• Don’t make assumptions about the background of an individual and the knowledge that they can seemingly bring to the table: Challenge the misconception that an individual who belongs to a given group speaks for the entirety of the group as a whole

• Read the author information either provided by the paper or look on outside websites to determine who the author is and what new information they bring to the field.
• Change the way search results are sorted. We tend to choose the most relevant information, but sometimes that can lead us to continue to uphold patriarchal and white supremacist views of a topic. Instead, sort by the newest information and find more.
• Experiment with different search terms. Consider the terms that different communities or groups might be using. You may use one term to describe something but another group may use a different term. Using new search terms can help you find diverse authors and research to bring new perspectives into your research topic.
• Consider geography/location in your searching. May sure you are not keeping with a Eurocentric point of view but bringing in other voices from different countries from around the world.
• Talk with your professors or subject librarians about what new voices are coming out in the field and how they view inclusive citations in their own work.
   

 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This resource was adapted by Nina Richard, Graduate Teaching Assistant, UT Libraries from the Rowan University Inclusive Citation guide. The guides has Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licenses. Thank you to Rowan University for allowing the reuse of their guide content.