1. An automated method in a computing system for facilitating cooperative and/or competitive searches for publications, comprising: generating a search result snapshot history representation that is a data structure comprising a plurality of nodes that represent search result snapshot objects, each search result snapshot object storing data that corresponds to search results of a specific iteration of a search project, storing data sufficient to restore the specific iteration, and comprising a forward reference and a backward reference, wherein at least some of the plurality of search result snapshot objects are linked to some other of the plurality of search result snapshot objects through the respective forward and backward references of each of the linked search result snapshot objects, and wherein at least two of the plurality of search result snapshot objects have been produced to correspond to search iterations by different individuals or entities; and sharing the generated search result snapshot history between a plurality of different individuals and/or entities.