Evaluate the collective function of references cited together in a given text segment.
Classify their combined role into one of the following categories: 'method', 'background', or 'result'.

Text:Similar data scatters can be seen in previous work (Fuchs et al., 1988; Van Gisbergen and Van Opstal, 1989; Broussard et al., 1995; Dean, 1996).
Category: