C. To make cited writers feel important
All the other choices are correct. Academic citations would give due credit to other people, enable readers to trace the logic of the argument in the research and also provide researchers with important sources. It is not done to make the cited writers feel important. It is necessary to give importance to the intellectual property of other researchers whether the research will be published or not. Research is a tough job to do but citations do not exactly entail fame or fortune to the researcher.