 When doing research, citations help you know where the author found the information they're using. Citations are included at the end of published work to give credit to other scholars' research and ideas. You've probably seen them in references, works cited, or bibliography sections. Scholars that are cited more often are more likely to impact their field of study, and the more a scholar gets cited, the more they continue to be cited. So whoever's research is the best or the most significant will get cited the most, right? Well, that isn't necessarily true. Historically, scholarship and publishing were only open to the educated elite in society, which in the Western world were only white men. Women, black people, indigenous peoples, and people of color were excluded from academic conversations. But that's in the past and not how things are now, right? In actuality, white men continue to be published and cited more often, even though there are higher numbers of women and minority scholars today than ever before. And when only research written by white males is viewed and cited, important perspectives are ignored, resulting in decision-making and policies that doesn't consider or benefit broader society. Gender and racial gaps in scholarly publishing exist today as a result of historic prejudices and systematic racism. These gaps unfairly limit the potential impact of these scholars and their work. In recent research into scientific studies has shown that citation inequality has increased over time. This means that the top 1% most cited authors or most popular authors accounted for 21% of all citations. Remember, the more paper gets cited, the more it continues to be cited. Being aware of who you are citing not only makes your research and writing more comprehensive and well-rounded, it also helps scholars get the recognition they deserve for their work, allowing them to continue and further their research. And that's good for all of us. If you need help finding sources or with research help in general, you can always ask a librarian. Go to library.usu.edu and click on Meet with a Librarian for more information.