Accessing Resources via Hierarchical Exploration of Topic Areas

CONTRIBUTING TO THE REFERENCE COLLECTIONS

The reference collections to resources made accessible via the REDEM platform are for the benefit of all those interested in the project areas topics. Their use is free and keeping them up depends on contents contributions of the wide scientific community.

WHAT TO CONTRIBUTE

1. Suggestions to include new items in the collections

The reference collections point to a variety of resources. In addition to journal articles, books and book sections, the resources include magazine and newspaper articles, web sites and blog articles, video clips, data sources and knowledge repositories in general. The three key criteria for adding new items are relevance to the topics, quality and interest for a reasonably wide audience.

Although at this time the overwhelming majority of resources in the reference collections are in English, we encourage you to submit references to resources in other languages, provided they satisfy the criteria above.

2. Proposals to expand/amend a collection's hierarchy

The expansion of the resource collections may occasionally require revising the topic hierarchies that guide their browsing. We welcome proposals to this effect provided they offer adequate justification for such modifications.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

1. New collection items

Please consider contributing as little as one resource at a time. Do not assume that we primarily expect contributors to set aside time from their activities in order to support the growth of the collections. On the contrary, we hope that the expansion of the collections will be possible at a low-cost and as a by-product of the work of all those coming across resources which might be relevant.

As a general rule, the fields used to list a resource in the REDEM collections are those you find in commonly used reference management software, such as Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero etc. Not all fields are required - please use examples from the current collections for guidance. Ideally, new references should be forwarded in one the following four standardised formats: American Political Science Association, American Psychological Association, Harvard (Cite Them Right) or Chicago Manual of Style. If you do not have access or do not use a reference management tool, you can generate references in any of the above styles using the free tools on the MyBib on-line platform.

When proposing a new resource for the REDEM collections, please specify the topic node(s) in the hierarchy where you believe it belongs. A resource can be listed under several nodes, for example if it deals with a topic and also with arguments defending or objecting to that concept (which would be sub-topics). It is also possible for a resource to be associated with remote topics in the hierarchy - this may be the case for books, but not only.

To enable a quick access to published resources, it is also important to include their Digital Object Identifier (DOI) in the reference whenever available. To find out whether a resource has a DOI, run a search based on its name/title and the keyword "DOI". If DOIs are not available, please include whatever links you have. They will be published depending on whether they are likely to be persistent.

2. Topic hierarchy amendments

Proposals for extensions or amendments to topic hierarchies need to include a brief justification:

ADDING TOPIC NODES: To add a new node to a topic hierarchy, please provide a rationale as well as at least one (preferably more) resources to be listed under the new topic node.
SPLITTING TOPIC NODES: It is important to distinguish between splitting a topic node and adding sub-topic nodes that refine it. The former case implies that a topic T should be divided into two topics T1 and T2 which should be treated independently. In the latter case, you could propose adding two sub-topics of T - ST1 and ST2 - which are subsumed by T, for example normative and empirical aspects of T.
REMOVING TOPIC NODES: If you propose removing a topic node, please include a justification for its obsolescence.

3. Other feedback

We welcome any other feedback you might have regarding the REDEM reference collections, including proposals to set up new collections. Do not hesitate to contact us with your suggestions, proposals and ideas. Thank you!

WHERE TO SEND CONTRIBUTIONS

All contributions should be sent via email to explores@redem-h2020.eu. If you are writing to us for the first time, please include your name, affiliation and an email address where we can contact you should we have any questions, or need any clarifications. All personal data will be stored according to the General Data Protection Regulation. You will not be included in our mailing list, unless you specifically request to.