Color image segmentation using kmeans clustering and L*a*b colorspace

The matlab documentation provides a nice example of unsupervised image segmentation using kmeans cluster and L*a*b colorspace: https://www.mathworks.com/help/images/examples/color-based-segmentation-using-the-l-a-b-color-space.html

This worked well for my application and is part of an analysis I'm writing up for publication. Does anyone know good papers to cite? I presume the methodology did not originate with Mathworks.