National Interest Waiver requires much but (at least) I didn't give out too much proofs to support what I am doing is tightly related with USA's national interest. Of course, if you give out as much as possible proofs, that should be very good, but it's not so important as those lawyers at here said.
The reference letters probably are the same, but the immigration officers dealing with your case and your collegues' case are probably not the same; and honestly, I don't think they have enough time to read your reference letters carefully, so the reference letter is not a big problem too.
About the citation, you just need to staple the copy of PubMed citation (if you are working in biological science areas) with the paper, that's enough; but if you can staple the citations by other researchers, that should be very good.
Anyway, order one DIY kit, read it carefully, then you will find the petition is not so difficult, it's deserved to try that at first. Wish you succeed!