What is ATI?
Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) is a new tool designed to facilitate transparency in qualitative and mixed-methods research. It allows scholars to “annotate” specific passages in a publication with additional information explaining how they generated and analysed their data, along with links to a wide variety of underlying data sources. These annotations are displayed alongside their articles on the publisher’s website, with pinpoint linking to the relevant sections of text.
Why are we using ATI?
Because rigorous social science requires open data and materials.
In qualitative and mixed-methods research, rich qualitative data sets are often analysed and deployed individually or in small groups, and data, analysis, and conclusions are densely interwoven across the span of a publication. By employing ATI, authors are able to show the data and analysis on which their research is based alongside the main text, therefore enhancing their scholarship and facilitating deeper understanding and evaluation for the reader.
How to access ATI
The tool has been integrated with the HTML versions of publications on Cambridge Core, so viewing the annotations does not require installing any software. To view the annotations you simply need to click the "Annotations" button at the top of the publication to expand the side bar. You can then navigate through the comments and see which section of the publication the annotations relate to.
Development and use of ATI
ATI was created in collaboration with the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) at Syracuse University and the non-profit software company Hypothesis. We initially entered a pilot phase of the project and added ATI to a number of articles on Cambridge Core. The articles were selected from various disciplines including political science, international relations, socio-linguistics, healthcare, and bioethics, and showcase some of the diverse uses to which ATI can be put.
In 2022 we published the first ever book to be annotated using ATI, Constitution Makers on Constitution Making, edited by Tom Ginsburg and Sumit Bisarya. This exciting new use of ATI represents a key step forward for transparency of qualitative research, much of which is published in books.
We are continuing to develop our workflows to support the use of ATI in more publications. Please contact openresearch@cambridge.org if you are interested in using ATI. You can also read more about ATI’s foundations and goals on the Why ATI? page of the QDR website.
Articles annotated with ATI
- Stay off my field: policing boundaries in human rights and democracy promotion. Sarah Sunn Bush and Sarah S. Stroup, International Theory (2023)
- Making Sense of Human Rights Diplomacy: Evidence from a US Campaign to Free Political Prisoners. Rachel Myrick and Jeremy M. Weinstein, International Organization (2021)
- The Non-Democratic Roots of Mass Education: Evidence From 200 Years. Agustina S. Paglayan, American Political Science Review (2020)
- The Structure of Description: Evaluating Descriptive Inferences and Conceptualizations. Marcus Kreuzer, Perspectives on Politics (2019)
- Defending Hierarchy from the Moon to the Indian Ocean: Symbolic Capital and Political Dominance in Early Modern China and the Cold War. Paul Musgrave and Daniel H. Nexon, International Organization (2018)
- The Territorial Expansion of the Colonial State: Evidence from German East Africa 1890–1909. Jan Pierskalla, Alexander De Juan, and Max Montgomery, British Journal of Political Science (2017)
- Making the Real: Rhetorical Adduction and the Bangladesh Liberation War. Joseph O'Mahoney, International Organization (2017)
- Demand for Law and the Security of Property Rights: The Case of Post-Soviet Russia. Jordan Gans-Morse, American Political Science Review (2017)
- The Unstoppable Glottal: Tracking Rapid Change in an Iconic British Variable. Jennifer Smith and Sophie Holmes-Elliott, English Language & Linguistics (2017)
- Covenants without the Sword? Comparing Prison Self-Governance Globally. David Skarbek, American Political Science Review (2016)
- Perceptions of Stigma and Discrimination in Health Care Settings towards Sub-Saharan African Migrant Women Living with Hiv/Aids in Belgium: A Qualitative Study. Agnes Arrey, Ebotabe, Johan Bilsen, Patrick Lacor, and Reginald Deschepper, Journal of Biosocial Science (2017)
- An Empirically Informed Analysis of the Ethical Issues Surrounding Split Liver Transplantation in the United Kingdom. Greg Moorlock, James Neuberger, Simon Bramhall, and Heather Draper, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2016)
- Visual Regimes and the Politics of War Experience: Rewriting War ‘from above’ in WikiLeaks’ ‘Collateral Murder. Joanna Tidy, Review of International Studies (2017)