An empty observation is not a zero observation.
A research record should distinguish a measured value from information that was not collected, is unknown, or does not apply.
Read this note:
When an empty field is being treated as a number.
Cloud Smoke and Vape LLC / Reference desk
Understand the meaning behind the record.
Four practical guides for defining research software requirements, plus links to relevant services and hypothetical workflow situations.
Research & Development
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Use these guides while preparing a brief or reviewing an interface concept. They address specific questions about unavailable information, units, corrections, and exports rather than general software slogans.
The notes are informational. They do not establish scientific validity, security, regulatory compliance, or a production implementation. A real project requires domain decisions and appropriate specialist work for those properties.
Keep the meaning beside the number.
An observation may need a unit, condition, method reference, and origin before another person can compare or reuse it.
Read this note:
When a value loses meaning in a compact view.
A corrected record should explain what changed.
Define how a research workflow distinguishes a correction, a new attempt, and a later interpretation of the same observation.
Read this note:
When an edit could change the meaning of a past review.
A readable export needs more than a data table.
Plan what a recipient needs to understand records outside the application that originally displayed them.
Read this note:
When a recipient needs to read records outside the original interface.
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