It's somewhat field dependent. I would generally expect citations to be used for both purposes. That is, if someone is proposing work substantially similar to e

It's somewhat field dependent. I would generally expect citations to be used for both purposes. That is, if someone is proposing work substantially similar to existing work, they should be expected to cite that other work and identify differences with the new work since novelty is a key component generally (although not always) required for publication in my area.