Citations are indeed important. Whenever I read something that is presented scientifically without any references; it seems opinionated. Writing about an opinion is not as valuable - I will not trust that information. There are several ways to cite, footnotes being one of them. Adding hyper-links and in-text citation is fairly simple too (I'm more used to the APA style of referencing). Although a reference list is not necessary in the end (if you cite in-text), it helps reader both to find the resources without scrolling up, and it does give the article a much more scientific feel.