Placement of "Research Notes"

Question

When I've worked on profiles, I've sometimes put a section at the top that I wanted to catch peoples' attention first.  I often put that in a paragraph called ==Caution== or something similar.  I"m not sure I've ever seen anyone else use that particular heading.

With the recent discussion on ==Research Notes== I thought that this title, more generally used, would suit the purpose, so put a ==Research Notes== paragraph at the top of a profile.  Soon I discovered that the paragraph had been moved to the bottom of the profile along with ==Sources==

So I guess I'm asking for clarification -- if ==Research Notes== is intended only for material which is intended to be looked at after one has read the body of the narrative, well and good, I won't use it for material which I am hoping people will read first!  Rather than ==Caution==, is there a generally accepted heading that means, "This is a hot issue, read this before you read anything else?"

Comments

Hi Jack

This is a great question. I normally just use research notes and just hope they read them however if I want a certain statement to stand out I normally change the font color by doing something like this

<p><center><span style="color:#FF0000"><span style="font-size:133%; line-height: 1.5em;">Please read this Information
</span></span></center></p>

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Jack, see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Notes

Steve, I'm sorry to say that is not recommended. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:HTML_and_Inline_CSS

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P.S. As mentioned on the Research Notes help page, if there is something that needs extra highlighting at the top, it's done through a Research Note Box. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Note_Boxes

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I don't see any Research Notes boxes for the things I most often highlight -- such as the existence of two people with similar names and dates who may or may not be the same person.  I guess I'll continue using the heading ==Caution== because I want to warn the reader to be cautious about some sources of possible confusion.  I also include cross-links from one profile to the other so that the reader (and I when working on the profiles) can easily toggle from one to the other.

The write up about Research Notes is, I suppose, fine for people who want to use that heading -- generally, I don't find it necessary to describe the research that has been done if it is already documented with inline sources, and I'm not inclined, usually, to describe future research that ought to be done because if I'm working on a profile I really want to do it myself! -- and I'm really not ready to leave the profile until I've done it. But there are others who may find that useful.  

I'm glad I asked the question because if ==Research Notes== is designated for a very specific and limited purpose, i don't want to be misusing it.

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Hi Chris

I realize it wasn't recommended however if we going to use research boxes would you suggest we use something like the old research box {{Research_pending}} I'm not sure I see a research box that would fit this specific case. Unless your recommending we do something like this <h2>Research Notes</h2>

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If there is a need for something different than what has been discussed and adopted regarding https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Notes and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Note_Boxes it should be proposed https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Developing_New_Rules

I realize it's easier to go your own way, but please don't. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Style_FAQ for the explanation.

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Chris, I'm confused.  What I want to do and often have done with a ==Caution== paragraph at the beginning of the narrative part of a biography -- listing two or more names which are often confused and helping the reader to distinguish between them -- has not been discussed as an appropriate use of Research Boxes, and I'm fine with that.

But am I hearing that I should not do this at all?  That somehow something that is helpful to me and intended to be helpful to others and possibly head off some disastrous merges should not be done?

I've attempted to work within the boundaries of WikiTree's style guidelines, and I've not seen anything forbidding creating a variety of paragraph headings and subheadings.  This is a matter of significant concern.

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Hi Jack,

You're certainly not the only one to put something like this at the top of a profile, but it's not the recommended style.

Every profile should have:
== Biography ==
== Sources ==
<references />

These are optional:
== Research Notes ==
== Acknowledgements ==

You are welcome to create other subheadings, but they should be below one of the above.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Biographies#What_information_should_be_included.3F

What you're talking about might make a good Research Note Box. If it's helpful to you and helpful to others, perhaps it should be adopted by the community.

Chris

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So what I got from the instructions was that these are the MINIMUM first order headings, not the maximum.  Am I to understand that we are not allowed to add any other first order headings?

Since WikiTree has a global reach, I have been encouraging experimentation with bilingual profiles in the Indonesia Project.  I believe we have attracted more Indonesian speakers because they can see that an effort has been made to accomodate Indonesian language materials on WikiTree.    With a bilingual profile, the language the person himself would have used is first, so ==Biografi==.  In Indonesian.  Then the English narrative beings with the English language ==Biography==.  I actually kidded someone who created a biography completely in French, but left the English language heading ==Biography== at the top-- if you're going to do it in French, you should do the whole thing in French.  

We have over two dozen different and separate language streams for Categories, and Categories actually do something mechanically as a link from one page to another.  Do Headings and subheadings do anything within the computer, other than create a Table of Contents, which is being impacted by using more than the 4 authorized first order headings?

I have also worked with biographies with a lot of information contaminated by people who thought two different people were actually one.  Eventually the profile would need to be divided into two people, but in the interim, while many facts were still uncertain as to whom they belonged to, it seemed quite helpful to have ==Biography of Samuel Smith of Massachusetts== followed by ==Biography of Samuel Smith of Rhode Island, followed by ==Facts which could belong to either Samuel==.

Profiles are never done;  they are always in some state of research.  I'm concerned that we're restricting the arrangement of facts in the narrative and it's not clear to me what benefits are being obtained through such severe restrictions on first order headings.

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What you're doing with the bilingual profiles is great, Jack. Yes, that would be the recommended style for those.

We should have a better explanation of this somewhere. I'll put it on my to-do list to work on a new help page on headlines and the order of things that appear in a profile. If anything significant is new, I'll propose it here in G2G according to our policy on developing new rules.

Headlines could matter for technical reasons, and consistency matters in a collaborative community. That said, I don't think anybody is talking about "severe restrictions." :-) These are style rules. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Style_FAQ

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Hi Chris, is there a more updated list of boxes?

There seem to be only a few here; surely there are more?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Note_Boxes

Answer 1

I usually put the research notes at end of the bio and before Sources/reference.

Although my research notes are typically vital records, and when I am in for example Amesbury, Massachusetts Vital Records, looking for a birth/marriage/death and I find many related records of the spouse/children in the same pages, I add them at the bottom so I can later incorporate them in the bio. Or can add them to the related profiles with copy and paste without going back and look for each child all over again.

Answer 2

Jack, I use === Research Notes === to show people what needs to be studied and what has already been looked at regarding the particular research question.  I put it at the bottom of the profile and use it as a guide for further research.  

I use  === NOTES === (or perhaps your === CAUTION ===) if there is a problem with distinguishing two people with the same name or something that might lead people to merge when not appropriate.  I put that section at the top of the profile, the same place I would put === Disputed Parents === or === Disputed Origins ===..   

Magnus has suggested that there be a separate tab for Research Notes.  I like that idea because it would lead those who are into research to look further, but it wouldn't clutter up the profile for those not interested.

There was a similar discussion in G2G in August HERE.

Comments

Here's the help page: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Notes

It should be a level two headline between the Biography and Sources.

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I have been doing the same as Vic and putting Research Notes at the bottom of the profile as an aide memoire to where to pick up the next time I visit the profile to work on it or to give others clues as to where I have useful data that I have not yet had time to build into the profile.

I had not seen the guideline, but felt that the last space on the page was the most logical position. I have spent the past few days systematically working through all of my profiles and making research notes. Can I just leave them where they are or do I have to go through them all again and move them?

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Lynda, here's more about style rules: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Style_FAQ

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OK. I will move them to conform, but I still don’t understand why the sequence is so important. I would have thought it was enough just to use the appropriate styles and levels for the headings.

Answer 3

When I create Research Notes, I generally put them at the very end of the profile (after Sources and Acknowledgments) because they typically are speculative and/or poorly formatted, and I don't want them to detract from the other content on the page.

Comments

Technically they belong between the Biography and Sources. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Notes

If it's rough draft text, maybe a horizontal rule and a note saying that?

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That was part of my reasoning in putting them at the end too Ellen. I didn’t want my notes about work I still had to do to distract from the already established content in the bio and sources.