Research plan: useful contributions

A proposal, not a reported result

No experiment has been run and no research findings are claimed. There is no confirmed research partnership or institutional endorsement. The current catalog and local submission pilot are preparation for a possible study.

A possible design

After a baseline pilot, compare ordinary submission feedback with a clearly described recognition feature for documented contributions. Keep file safety checks and moderation identical for everyone.

Define allocation, study duration, exclusions and analysis before recruitment. If there are too few independent participants, use a descriptive pilot instead of claiming a causal effect.

Quality before volume

Candidate outcomes include completeness of provenance, reproducibility of hardware reports, moderator corrections and useful contributions per participating author. Upload counts alone can reward duplicates or low-quality records.

These are proposed measures, not observed results or targets already achieved. Sample size and statistical power remain to be assessed.

Privacy and participation

Research participation must be separate from ordinary use of the catalog. Before a study, explain what is measured, obtain appropriate consent, define retention and withdrawal procedures, and assess the need for independent ethics review.

Do not expose serial numbers or private logs in research exports. Use minimized, pseudonymous data and explain the limits of deleting information that participants have already published.