The DADM Project welcomes the assistance of current or former UCA students, as well as current or former students at other universities, to help with researching and updating the dispute narratives for each of the countries in each of the regions of the world. Other activities may include developing or updating data sets based on the information contained in the dispute narratives. If you are interested in volunteering as a research assistant for the DADM Project, please contact Dr. Mark Mullenbach at markm@uca.edu. Please read the following instructions for details on how information is compiled for the dispute narratives.
Instructions:
1. Read some of the dispute narratives located on the DADM website for the region in which you are interested.
2. Familiarize yourself with the type of governmental, political, electoral, dispute management, and other information that we are compiling for each of the countries.
3. For important events, we want to be able to record the exact dates of the events, including month, day, and year. In some cases, it is acceptable to only record the month and year if the precise day is not available.
4. Once you are comfortable with the type of information that is being compiled in the narratives, you should choose a country (dispute narrative) and email Dr. Mark Mullenbach the name of the country (dispute narrative) that you have selected, to ensure that no one else is working on that country (dispute narrative).
5. For most countries, the dispute narratives will need to be updated for the past few years (more than a decade in some cases). There are some countries for which the dispute narrative has not yet been started, but that is only a few countries.
6. Do not worry about determining the dates of the dispute phases (pre-crisis, crisis, conflict, post-conflict, and post-crisis) at this time. Dr. Mullenbach will make those determinations based on the information that is compiled.
7. All sources of information (online or otherwise) will be listed in the list of Sources found at the end of each dispute narrative. Please keep track of all sources and dates of the sources used in the dispute narratives — e.g. BBC News, January 15, 2020.
8. Some of the most useful English-language sources are BBC News, Reuters, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times. Most of these media companies have search functions on their websites. Other international and national news sources, such as Xinhua News Agency, Agence France Presse, and Deutsche Welle, may also be used. Non-English language sources may also be used if you understand the language. Other types of sources include governmental or organizational reports, statements, press releases, and other documents. Basically, you may use any source that you deem to be credible. The more sources used to write or update a dispute narrative, the better we are able to capture the most accurate information about the events.
9. One basic search tactic is to google the name of the country and the word “news” — e.g. “Bahrain news”. The list of results is typically very useful for finding recent information about an event or events in that country.
10. Any information about events can be typed and saved in a Word document file or a shared Google document. Once you are finished working on a country (dispute narrative), the Word document file or link to the shared Google document can be emailed to Dr. Mullenbach. The name of the document should correspond to the name of the country (dispute narrative) that has been updated.
11. The names and educational credentials/affiliations of research assistants will be listed on the “Project Participants” page. All project participants may use any of the information or data sets that are posted on the DADM website for their own research papers.
12. Thank you for your participation in the DADM Project at UCA! Please contact Dr. Mark Mullenbach at markm@uca.edu if you have any questions.