A Comprehensive Framework for Thinking About Nuclear Issues . . . aka an awesome free research tool

CSIS is happy to announce what we'll deem the "beta" version of our "Comprehensive Framework" project.  The full project page is located here (also check the handy brochure made here) but the page is currently a bit clunky so allow me to explain the project in hopes of soliciting some feedback. 

Project Background

The Comprehensive Framework project is an effort to create a complete taxonomy by which people can see the interactions between various aspects of nuclear policy and see what the plethora of reports, commissions, task forces, etc. that have been published in the last 18 months have to say on the issue.

After hosting a number of working groups to iterate the framework, the CSIS team settled on a final taxonomy consisting of  the 4 major areas of nuclear strategy and policy, nuclear force posture, nuclear terrorism and nonproliferation, and nuclear arms control and disarmament and approximately 5 sub-categories for each category.  The complete taxonomy isn't up on the website yet but we are working on it.  We also created a completely separate set of codings called "Key Policy Issues" that includes topics like START, CTBT, etc. for those who may not be interested in wonky findings such as, for example, the interaction between sub-categories "nuclear infrastructure" and "verification, detection, and forensics" but just want to see what these reports have to say about key policy priorities for the administration.  

Using the Comprehensive Framework

CSIS used a qualitative "data miner" software from Provalis with which we uploaded all of the reports and then applied all of the possible codings that could apply, both from the taxonomy and key nuclear policy issues.  To use the software, simply download the QDA Miner Reader and the Comprehensive Framework Data File that are both located on the Comprehensive Project page.  Once you download the reader, here are some valuable tips for using it: 

-The "Cases" in the upper left are the list of reports we have included in the Framework at this time.  This will be updated over time.

-The "Codes" are the major categories and sub-categories that we have created as part of the project

-"Text Retrieval" is most of the searching is done.  Setting "search unit" to "codes" allows you to select the categories that you wish to search for which allows you to search for the interaction between issue areas.  

Feedback

We would greatly appreciate any feedback people have about the project so that we can continue to improve its functionality.  If you have questions, comments, or recommendations about how to improve the project e-mail me at cjones@csis.org