Call for Papers - Special Issue: Citational Politics and Justice

2024-11-15

KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies is inviting papers for a special issue on citational politics and justice.

Citation remains a cornerstone of scholarly and scientific work. It is how we acknowledge those on whose shoulders we stand, and with whom we are in conversation. It is also an important service to our readers. However, like many academic practices, citation is neither neutral nor universal. There are important differences between disciplines and language groups, and how and what we cite changes over time. There is also a great deal of evidence suggesting that the conscious and unconscious biases and discrimination that marks so much of our world also shapes who gets cited. Such bias serves to render the contributions of marginalised groups less visible. This special issue seeks to explore how we can achieve greater citational and epistemic justice.

Examples of topics may include, but are not restricted to the following:

  • Theoretical and empirical explorations of the concept of ‘citational justice’, especially those addressing intersectionality
  • Experiments with aspirational metrics, altmetrics, etc.
  • Cultural (disciplinary and national) differences in citation practices and what they mean for collaboration
  • Citation of non-traditional outputs, such as datasets, digital objects, software, museum catalogues, oral traditions, etc.
  • Implications of generative AI for citation practices
  • Dealing with citations of retracted work, negative citations, and self-citations
  • Teaching students about citation
  • Policies for achieving greater citational justice

In addition to typical academic articles (max. 9000 words) using qualitative and/or quantitative methods, we welcome creative and experimental forms of representation, including but not restricted to dialogues, illustrated pieces, auto-ethnography, interviews with both humans and non-humans, speculative fiction, manifestos, etc.

As a multi/inter/trans-disciplinary journal, we encourage submissions from scholars and practitioners across disciplines. We also welcome submissions with student collaborators. For this topic, collaborations with publishers, libraries, and research funding agencies are particularly welcome.

This special issue is edited by Sally Wyatt. She is Professor of Digital Cultures, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, and a member of the KULA editorial board.

Please submit your contributions by February 28, 2025. All submissions will undergo double-anonymous peer review. To submit:

  • Create a user account on the KULA website. If you have an ORCID iD, you can connect your ORCID iD to your user account.
  • Go to the submission wizard to submit your work.
    • Choose the relevant section for your submission (e.g., research article).
    • Do not select a category (AI and Academic Publishing or Conversations on Epistemic Injustice).
    • Read and acknowledge submission requirements.
    • In the “Comments for the Editor” box, indicate that your submission is for the special issue on citational politics and justice.
    • Acknowledge copyright statement.
    • Click “Save and continue.”
    • Upload your submission.
    • Enter the metadata for your submission, including an abstract, keywords, etc.
    • Review your submission and submit.

Please see the journal’s submissions page for more detail about submission requirements. If you have any questions about your potential contribution, please contact Co-Editor-in-Chief Samantha MacFarlane at kulajournal@uvic.ca.  

KULA is a diamond open-access journal that does not require article publication charges (APCs). Authors retain full copyright to their works, which will be published under a CC-BY license.