Supply Chain Sense

These days, we could say, online texts are not islands. By means of hyperlinks they connect to other texts. Just as important for this manual is the way texts build up from other texts, and are used again online, in other places.

This chapter deals with research, meaning "looking up", rather than original research. A supply chain metaphor can be useful here, because it highlights two dimensions: how to find what you need to write, and also where quality comes from. We can expect there to be a trade-off: that what is harder to find is sometimes going to be of better quality. The metaphor also sets us thinking about where the sources we use get their material from, and what are their processes for building in quality.

The sections in this chapter are:

• Document it
• How to add citations on Lunyr
• Look upstream
• Good research

Document it

A fundamental principle is to support the "supply" process underlying research with good documentation. It will come in two types, citations and metadata. These are not distinct, and in fact it is probably helpful to think of citations as the way metadata are presented. They are form and content. In any case, a difference between research and casual browsing is that researchers note what they find of interest.

Referencing to online and hardcopy sources depends on recording the metadata as you do the research. Avoid having to trawl right back through your browsing history!

How to add citations on Lunyr

The simple case is when there is a URL. Use a footnote number like [7] inline in the text, and create a footnote

[7] URL

in an ordered list, in a References section at the end of the article. Of course you can reuse the footnote number in the text, if the source is used more than once.

For other types of citation, instead of the URL, put in metadata enough to locate the reference. For example, in a video, give the time code for the part you mean. For a book, give the page number, as well as the author, title, ISBN.

Look upstream

It is not always easy to judge how reliable a source you use actually is.

You can at least examine what authors do about supplying you with metadata. If there are footnotes, it's a good sign, and if you see that the footnotes refer to sources you regard as authoritative, that's even better.

News media, however, are based on sources and fact-checking. They do not always give sources, which they may have good reason to protect. And their fact-checking and other editorial processes have to be taken for granted. Publishing, in general, uses numerous processes to add value. But not transparently.

When you have considered how much or little you know about the type of sources you rely on, come back and apply it to your own situation, writing for Lunyr. In other words, try some objectivity. The way to create a quality article is only to use sources that take as much trouble as you do. When others read your article, they are then going to judge what you write, and the criteria may be just the same as you have applied to your sources.

So you need to show that your research process is serious, as a matter of credibility. You have to demonstrate that you can sort the sheep from the goats, when it comes to sources. In the information world, the "trusted brand" has to rely on a trusted process.

Coming back to Catelyn Stark's dilemma from Chapter 6, there are two points to make here. Firstly, there was an upstream problem with the information on which she acted. Secondly, of course, she didn't see that there was a dilemma. Tyrion Lannister, by contrast, was a more thoughtful player of the game of thrones.

That covers the major points on sourcing texts. For the image of Catelyn discussed in Chapter 7, the licensing was assumed to be as given on Flickr. In other words, you have to hope that licensing metadata supplied, particularly for images, is accurate. As with most information supplied on the Web, you do have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Good research

Research these days starts with a general-purpose search engine, but it needn't end there. You are likely to need a wide range of sources when you work on Lunyr,, compared to what is adequate for Wikia.

The example of image research on Flickr shows the advantage of delving into parts of a big site, on a particular mission. Google search is useful, but special areas such as Google Books and Scholar may prove fruitful more quickly. The Internet Archive offers a huge range of historic books.

Working on reference articles is almost certain to improve your research skills, which are then transferable.