Chapter 5 — From concepts to measures

Materials for the concept-representation Practice section

Chapter 5 argues that computational choices encode epistemological commitments: the way a study turns a concept into a measure already contains a claim about what the concept is. Its Practice section asks you to find that claim in published work.

The Practice assignment. Select two empirical studies and write a one-page annotated bibliography on how each represents its core concepts computationally, along four dimensions: worldview alignment, measurement approach (deductive, inductive, or integrative), featurization and auxiliary instruments, and the evidence offered for validity and reliability.

The studies, filtered to concept representation

Forty-eight studies carry an annotation on how they built their measures. That is fewer than the data-management set, and deliberately so, because this lens takes longer to apply: the measurement decisions are often buried in an appendix rather than stated in the methods section.

studiesData = {
  const rows = await d3.csv("/studies/studies.csv");
  return rows.map(d => ({
    ...d,
    yearNum: +d.year || null,
    stageList: (d.stages || "").split("|").filter(s => s),
    recNum: +d.top_rec || 0
  }));
}

stageMeta = ({
  DM: {label: "Data management",        chapters: "Ch. 3–4",  note: "dm_note", accent: "#1f6feb"},
  CR: {label: "Concept representation", chapters: "Ch. 5–6",  note: "cr_note", accent: "#8250df"},
  DA: {label: "Computational analysis", chapters: "Ch. 7–8",  note: "da_note", accent: "#bc4c00"},
  SC: {label: "Scientific communication", chapters: "Ch. 9–10", note: "sc_note", accent: "#1a7f37"}
})

// A lens is either fixed by the hub page or chosen by the reader. When fixed,
// show plain text instead of a disabled dropdown: a disabled control announces
// as "unavailable" to screen readers, which misdescribes a deliberate setting.
viewof chosenLens = stageLens === null
  ? Inputs.select(
      new Map([
        ["All design stages", "ALL"],
        ...Object.entries(stageMeta).map(([k, v]) => [`${v.label} (${v.chapters})`, k])
      ]),
      {label: "Design stage", value: "ALL"}
    )
  : Inputs.input(stageLens);

activeLens = stageLens === null ? chosenLens : stageLens

inScope = activeLens === "ALL"
  ? studiesData
  : studiesData.filter(d => d.stageList.includes(activeLens))

viewof queryText = Inputs.text({
  label: "Search",
  placeholder: "title, journal, abstract, annotation…",
  width: 320,
  submit: false
})

viewof disciplinePick = Inputs.select(
  ["All disciplines", ...new Set(inScope.map(d => d.discipline).filter(x => x))].sort(
    (a, b) => (a === "All disciplines" ? -1 : b === "All disciplines" ? 1 : a.localeCompare(b))
  ),
  {label: "Discipline", value: "All disciplines"}
)

viewof recommendedOnly = Inputs.toggle({
  label: "Recommended starting points only",
  value: false
})

filtered = {
  const q = (queryText || "").trim().toLowerCase();
  return inScope
    .filter(d => disciplinePick === "All disciplines" || d.discipline === disciplinePick)
    .filter(d => !recommendedOnly || d.recNum >= 4)
    .filter(d => {
      if (!q) return true;
      return [d.title, d.journal, d.abstract, d.discipline, d.theme,
              d.dm_note, d.cr_note, d.da_note, d.sc_note]
        .some(v => (v || "").toLowerCase().includes(q));
    })
    .sort((a, b) => (b.recNum - a.recNum) || (b.yearNum - a.yearNum));
}

stageLens === null
  ? html``
  : html`<p class="lens-static">Design stage:
      <strong>${stageMeta[stageLens].label}</strong>
      (${stageMeta[stageLens].chapters}; fixed on this page.
      <a href="/studies/">Browse all stages</a>.)</p>`

html`<p class="studies-count" role="status">
  <strong>${filtered.length}</strong> ${filtered.length === 1 ? "study" : "studies"}
  ${activeLens === "ALL" ? "" : `annotated for ${stageMeta[activeLens].label.toLowerCase()}`}
  ${filtered.length !== inScope.length ? html`<span> · filtered from ${inScope.length}</span>` : ""}
</p>`

html`<div class="studies-list">
  ${filtered.map(d => html`<article class="study-card">
    <h3 class="study-title">
      ${d.doi ? html`<a href="${d.doi}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">${d.title}</a>` : d.title}
    </h3>
    <p class="study-meta">
      ${[d.journal, d.year].filter(x => x).join(" · ")}
      ${d.citations ? html`<span class="study-cites"> · ${d.citations} citations</span>` : ""}
    </p>
    <p class="study-badges">
      ${d.discipline ? html`<span class="badge badge-plain">${d.discipline}</span>` : ""}
      ${d.stageList.map(s => html`<span class="badge"
          style="--accent:${stageMeta[s].accent}"
          title="${stageMeta[s].label} (${stageMeta[s].chapters})">${s}<span
          class="visually-hidden"> (${stageMeta[s].label})</span></span>`)}
      ${d.recNum >= 4 ? html`<span class="badge badge-rec">recommended</span>` : ""}
    </p>
    ${activeLens !== "ALL" && d[stageMeta[activeLens].note]
      ? html`<div class="study-note">
          <span class="study-note-label">${stageMeta[activeLens].label}</span>
          <p>${d[stageMeta[activeLens].note]}</p>
        </div>`
      : ""}
    <details class="study-more">
      <summary>${activeLens === "ALL" ? "Annotations and abstract" : "Other stages and abstract"}</summary>
      ${Object.entries(stageMeta)
        .filter(([s, m]) => d[m.note] && s !== activeLens)
        .map(([s, m]) => html`<div class="study-note">
          <span class="study-note-label">${m.label}</span>
          <p>${d[m.note]}</p>
        </div>`)}
      ${d.purpose ? html`<p class="study-kv"><strong>Epistemic purpose:</strong> ${d.purpose}</p>` : ""}
      ${d.capacity ? html`<p class="study-kv"><strong>Computational capacity (as coded in the source table):</strong> ${d.capacity}</p>` : ""}
      ${d.goal ? html`<p class="study-kv"><strong>Goal of research:</strong> ${d.goal}</p>` : ""}
      ${d.abstract ? html`<p class="study-abstract">${d.abstract}</p>` : ""}
    </details>
  </article>`)}
</div>`

Reading for the worldview

The worldview question is the one students find hardest, because papers almost never state theirs. You are inferring it from the measures. A study that treats a dictionary count as a direct reading of an underlying attitude is making a different epistemological bet than one that treats the same count as one indicator among several requiring triangulation, even if neither says a word about epistemology.

Look at what the study does when its measure and its theory disagree. That is usually where the commitment becomes visible.

The studies, filtered to concept representation

Reading for the worldview

Related material

Chapter 6 — Automated coding

Prompting and its failure modes

Text representation notebook

Full studies database