Working from sources

DHUM / DATA 70600 · Class 7

Searching dissertations for "participatory"

  • Which GC psychology dissertations did participatory research?
  • All three of these use the word in the abstract
  • The word alone doesn't tell you whether community members helped
search: "participatory"gc_etds-1976Housing crisis in Hungaryabstract: "a participatory action research project"?gc_etds-6750School climate, safety, and spaceabstract: "through participatory processes"?gc_etds-957Nepantla and Ubuntu ethicsabstract: "Participatory Action Research (PAR)"?

The rubric

Include

Community members helped design, conduct, analyze, or share the research.

Exclude

They took part only as participants, or "participatory" describes the topic.

Review

The author claims participatory principles without saying what community members did.

The prompt for the run

Apply the rubric to each dissertation, one at a time. For each one, extract the text, find where the author describes how the research was done, and read that part before deciding. Do not use keyword matching.

Save the decisions in a new file with one row per dissertation: the id, the decision, a quoted passage as evidence with its PDF page number, a one-sentence reason, and the rubric version. Do not change dissertations.csv.

  • Then it built a page for reviewing the decisions

One agent for each document

  • In a long session the agent loses track of earlier detail, as in Class 3
  • Codex can give each document its own agent
  • Each result is saved as soon as it is done
the PDFsagent 1agent 2agent 3...decisions filerow 1: saved when donerow 2: saved when donerow 3: saved when done

The decisions file

  • One row per dissertation
  • Each row has the rubric version, so you can compare decisions after you change the rubric
iddecisionevidencepagereasonrubricgc_etds-1976Include"coordinated by four AVM activists..."222homeless researchers set thequestionv1gc_etds-6750Exclude"I interviewed school teachers,counselors..."91interviewees onlyv1gc_etds-957Review"my colleagues, co-researchers andteachers"62claims co-research, proceduresunclearv1

The review page from the run

  • Each decision beside its title
  • The reason and the quoted passage
  • Filters for Include, Review, and Exclude
A review page titled Participatory research decisions, with filters for Include, Review and Exclude, showing the school climate dissertation marked Exclude with its reason and quoted passage.

One decision with its quote and page

  • The agent quotes the passage it based the decision on
  • It gives the PDF page
  • You can open the page and check
gc_etds-1976Include"Justice on the Streets was coordinatedby four AVM activists... and two long-timehomeless members."page 222p. 222

A dissertation marked Review

  • The author calls the board co-researchers
  • The procedures describe a focus group and observation
  • Under the rubric it goes to Review, for a person to decide
gc_etds-957 · Nepantla and Ubuntu Ethics Para NosotrosReview"I have never thought of the BxCRRB or its coordinators as my unknowingparticipants but as my colleagues, co-researchers and teachers." page 62The procedures (pages 49 to 53) show board members in a focus group, being observed,and sharing documents, with no described role in designing or conducting the study.

Revising the rubric

  • A case like this can mean a rule needs changing
  • Call the changed rubric version 2
  • Try it on a few dissertations first
  • Keep both versions
rubric v1change one rulerubric v2a few dissertationsthe restv1 kept

Checking the decisions

  • Open the PDF at the quoted page
  • Read every row marked Review
  • Check one Include and one Exclude yourself
  • Run it twice and compare
run 1run 2dissertation 1IncludeIncludedissertation 2ExcludeExcludedissertation 3IncludeReviewthe two runs disagree, so read it yourselfdissertation 4IncludeInclude

Terms of use for sources

  • Some archives forbid uploading, even to services that don't train
  • You can ask for permission
  • Take care with what you publish about people in the records
  • Some database licences do not allow bulk processing
  • Check the terms for each source

Research methods with an agent

Coding interviews

Apply your codebook to each transcript, with quotes.

A dataset from sources

Pull names, dates, and places from letters into a table.

A literature review

Search, screen, and summarize studies against your criteria.

Comparing versions

Mark every difference between two editions of a text.

Mapping

Place each location in a set of letters on a map.

Counting terms

Find each use of a term and count it by decade.

Directing an agent on a research task

describe the goaland the outputyouresearch sourcesand similarprojectsagentdraft a planagentreview the planyoutry a fewagentcheckyourun the restagentif the check fails, revise the description and try again