Citing with care: citational politics, the communication canon and the responsibility of scholarly acknowledgment

Abstract This article explores citational politics as a practice that actively constructs and sustains the communication canon. It contends that citation is not a neutral academic formality, but a political and ethical act that shapes whose scholarship becomes visible, legitimate and foundational. Drawing from critical race, feminist and decolonial perspectives, the article highlights the systemic exclusion of Black women, the least cited group in academia, and interrogates how this erasure impoverishes the field. It also identifies patterns of exclusion, from disciplinary bias to technological barriers, that limit the discoverability of Black women’s scholarship. Building on initiatives like #CommunicationSoWhite and #CiteBlackWomen, the article urges communication scholars to adopt more inclusive and reflexive citation practices. It concludes that dismantling exclusionary canons requires both individual responsibility and collective structural change, ultimately reshaping the discipline’s intellectual DNA toward equity and epistemic justice.