Sam Whitfield reads the evidence before the advice.

Citation Study Desk

A measured guide to AI citation research, GEO benchmark papers, and citation-behavior findings—written to separate what a study actually observed from what marketers now claim it proves.

Prepared by Sam Whitfield for operators who need GEO guidance to survive contact with the underlying study design.

Variables before verdicts

The part of GEO most summaries flatten.

AI citation research and GEO studiescitation behavior studiesGEO benchmark researchacademic GEO literature

Featured reading

When a cited source is not the source of the answer.

Each feature slows the paper down: what was measured, what citation behavior appeared, where the benchmark is brittle, and which GEO actions are justified by the evidence rather than by enthusiasm.

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01 Locate the study condition.

02 Separate citation from influence.

03 Name the benchmark limit.

04 Translate only what survives.

Benchmark caution

A higher citation rate is not automatically a better GEO tactic.

Prompts, retrieval layers, answer formats, freshness windows, and model release cycles can all move the result. The desk treats those details as the main evidence, not as footnotes.

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