  The arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) may show
anisotropies on all scales, from just above the experimental angular resolution
up to medium scales and dipole anisotropies. We find that a global comparison
of the two-point auto-correlation function of the data with the one of
catalogues of potential sources is a powerful diagnostic tool. In particular,
this method is far less sensitive to unknown deflections in magnetic fields
than cross-correlation studies while keeping a strong discrimination power
among source candidates. We illustrate these advantages by considering ordinary
galaxies, gamma ray bursts and active galactic nuclei as possible sources.
Already the sparse publicly available data suggest that the sources of UHECRs
may be a strongly clustered sub-sample of galaxies or of active galactic
nuclei. We present forecasts for various cases of source distributions which
can be checked soon by the Pierre Auger Observatory.
