Elements of Research AMP

For more information on how to create each content type in Research AMP, see Content Management Procedures.

Research Topics

Most Research AMP sites have about 6-10 research topics, used to subdivide the site's central theme and organize all of the content on the site.

As you plan your site, take some time to think through what your research topics. All content, like articles, research reviews, profiles, and news, are organized through research topics, so this is a main way that you can show your users the conceptual breadth of your site and what it does, as well as to link your content with work conducted by others.

Some considerations to bear in mind when designing research topics include:

• Length: each research topic name should be clear and concise: they should ideally consist of one to three words. Examples include "Labor & Economy" (Just Tech) "Online Play Spaces (Play & Wellbeing) and "Climate Futures" (Intersections), If research topic names are too long, they will not fit neatly into dropdown menus, headers, and other elements of the site design.

• Quantity: too few, and the full range of your topic might not be well described; too many, and it might be hard to make distinctions between topics.

• Breadth: each research topic should be broad enough to encompass multiple sub-topics, and to bring a cluster of related content together. The distinctions can be further refined using research tags. If you find that you can relate new content to more than two research topics, it is possible that the research topics are too broad.

• The longevity of your research topics: make them broad enough to encompass new ideas that may come in a few years. You can add new ones at any time, and change them later, but if you do you will need to re-assign all old content to fit the new research topics.

• Content: you may choose to create a research review for each research topic. This will allow you to use the essay as an "anchor point" for many of the citations that are associated with that topic, allowing your users to gain a perspective into the research on that topic.

Focus Tags

Focus Tags are a way to further subdivide your content. Tags can be added to each piece of content to make it clear at a glance what additional subjects are taken up in the content, to draw connections across different research topics, as to relate pieces of content to one another in a more fine-grained way.

Focus Tags can also be a way to surface new research topics. For example, "Covid-19" began as a research tag for one Research AMP site, and as it became clear that the issue was an important one, the site administrators made it into a research topic, and reclassified all of the content tagged "Covid-19" under that new topic.

You may wish to work with a librarian to develop a controlled vocabulary for your research tags.

Research Reviews

The research review content format is designed to allow Research AMP creators to present the literature in their Zotero library in an accessible format for their readers. Research reviews explain the breadth of research on the topic and serve as an accessible introduction to it. Usually, at least one research review is associated with each research topic, but more can be created to explore different facets of the topic.

Two examples of a research review is "Hacking, Computer Expertise, and Difference" from Just Tech, and "Image-Based Abuse: A Threat to Privacy, Safety, and Speech" from MediaWell. Both contain a table of contents, the "cite this" section, and a list of references.

Before you get started posting a research review, it is a good idea to create some editorial guidelines for what a research review will look like for your site. See Content Management Tips for more details.

Articles

The articles content template has a bit less structure than the research review template to allow for greater customization. This template offers the possibility of building new kinds of content, such as interviews or videos. See the Articles section of the Content Management Procedures.

Like with the research reviews, we recommend developing editorial guidelines that will define what constitutes an article for your Research AMP site. Some considerations include length, tone, citation and hyperlink styles, and how often you intend to publish an article.

Scholar Profiles

Use the profiles section of Research AMP to define the people who are in your network. You may choose to define the standards for inclusion any way you wish. Some Research AMPs try to include as many people from a community of scholars as possible (with their permission), while others set guidelines for who they include in their Profiles section, such as limiting Profiles to those who have contributed an article or research review, serve on the advisory committee, and/or are fellows or otherwise affiliated with the project.

Profiles need to be set up for anyone who writes an article or research review so that the content can be assigned to them. However, you may choose to create profiles for anyone in your field you wish to feature on the site.

The standard template for profiles includes name, title and institution, photograph, biography, and contact information such as email addresses and Twitter handles. You may also make a profile a "featured" one, or designate their role on the site; see content management tips for more details.

News Feed and Events

The PressForward tool powers the site's News Feed. Use it to curate relevant articles, reports, podcasts, and other information that you wish to feature on the Home Page.

Events also appear on the Home Page; use it to showcase relevant events from your network.

PressForward is is a free plugin that provides an editorial workflow for content aggregation and curation within the WordPress dashboard. It is designed for bloggers and editorial teams who wish to collect, discuss, and share content from a variety of sources on the open web, and publish it while maintaining the right attributions.

A guiding principle in using Pressforward for a Research AMP site is "amplify, don't duplicate." The goal is to highlight important and relevant material and then help users find their way to the original source.

For a more comprehensive dive into PressForward, see its documentation, here: https://pressforwardadmin.gitbooks.io/pressforward-documentation/content/