By merging and aggregating the four primary files described (manuscript file, author file, review file, and person file) researchers can create a variety of different analytical files at the level of the individual (as author or reviewer), the level of the manuscript (final result or individual versions), or the level of the review.
The DA team has created several analysis files as examples, but researchers may create their own analytical files that are tailored to their particular research agenda.
In the first example, we aggregate all versions of manuscripts at the manuscript level to track trajectories of particular types of manuscripts. Information for each manuscript is then added to the record for each author. Finally author characteristics are added in from the person file.
In the second example, we analyze reviewing behavior of individual reviewers by aggregating reviewer file and then adding in reviewer characteristics and author information from sociologist file and aggregated manuscript information.
In the third example, we match data from the person file to the author file, and then aggregate information from the manuscript file to determine the review outcome for each version.