Developing Support for Critical Citation Requirements for Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Research

Abstract

The 2020-2021 school year saw the implementation of the coordinated efforts of several academic librarians from the University of Maryland, College Park in beginning a program of citation justice practices education in departments across campus. Citation justice recognizes that citations are a form of power in the current state of academia and focuses on actively citing authors with historically marginalized identities in an effort to center and uplift their voices. Equitable citation practices involve auditing citation lists, but also making sure that meaningful engagement with works from authors with diverse identities is present in the research. This paper documents the efforts that have been put in place so far around implementing citation justice education at UMD libraries including developing instruction modules and research guides. In particular, focusing on the librarians’ instigation of a close partnership with the faculty and graduate students of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department (CEE) who were particularly receptive to expanding their scholarly communication practices to include aspects of citation justice. Additionally, it explores the potential to develop further support for tools including code, templates, and author associations and lists that can be used to implement diverse citations. Future steps include developing library support that would allow graduate students in the department of CEE to meet a requirement for diversity in their citation practices that will serve as concrete and practical applications of citation justice that will be applicable in their post-academia careers.