Frequently Asked Questions
As pertinent questions arise from Advisory Board members and testers, this page will populate slowly over time. If you have questions about site functionality, future possibilities, and any difficulties, please write us at adviseAH at gmail dot com so that we can address your comments directly. Thank you.
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Account Creation
Q: When signing up for an account, I noticed many areas to choose as personal interests. I think that list should be expanded or changed.
A: Great, just let us know.
Q: Why are we choosing areas of interest at the account registration stage?
A: We created a data submission process that will, in time, send alerts to users about the topics, keywords, and areas of research of new data. And the current data review process enables users to demarcate the current data points as related to specific topics. In time, both the data and search function become finer tuned.
Q: I noticed during the account creation process that I can choose from various user type options. I am more than one. Can I change it at some point?
A: You can choose more than one, i.e. be a healer and scholar. You can also change your user type later on. Please note that changes to your original request can take up to a week or two. We are not verifying your claims to be a scholar or healer. You are self-identifying. Advisory Board roles are by invitation only.
Citing the Archive of Healing™
Q: It would be great if the results could be cited. Can we add that feature?
A: We realized that it was easier to show you reliable card information so that you can choose your own citation style. Please note that each card has a "down" arrow on the right side. Choosing this will expand the card, showing you the RID number. Use that number for your citations where you would normally list a DOI. And keep in mind for your own research that RID numbers are searchable in the AH as well. Check out this MLA guide.
Submitting New Data
Q: Will users be able to submit new data?
A: Absolutely. We built this site in a manner that will particularly suit the submission of new data. We hope to add that feature in late 2021 or early 2022.
Search Functionality
Q: I'm not seeing as many results as I hoped. How come there are not more results from such a large database?
A: In order to protect cultural knowledge and intellectual property, we have acted very conservatively in coding the data as being hidden or shown. We used Machine Learning to work through the hundreds of thousands of data points. Each month, more and more data gets reviewed by humans and will likely be coded for display to either healers, scholars, or general users. While still an "archive," the data and functionality is not static; search results will vary over time. Some data will be closed if flagged as inappropriate; and new data will be made available as we make our way through the data points, one by one.
Q: What does the ATM search filter do?
A: ATM stands for Archive of Traditional Music. Some of the data is coded as ATM because it has either language or content that we would not want anyone but those registered as scholars to see who would recognize hopefully that such content or language is inappropriate to share with a general audience. But for research purposes on colloquialisms, folk sayings, or the original database, some scholars might find useful these cards labeled as ATM. Depending on your account type and the search terms, you may see little or no results.
Partnerships or Collaborations
Q: I am working with a local community or have access to data and would like to discuss ways that we might partner or collaborate with the AH.
A: Such partnerships are possible in a variety of ways. First, any data already collected could be added later when we open up a submission portal, or before we take public submissions by working directly together. Such data could be coded so that only those people with a certain, probably new, user type could access thereby serving as a secure searchable database that could be used for local/community purposes first and foremost. Or the data could be coded so that some or all could be seen by either general users, scholars, or healers, as we currently have the user types designed. Also, once a year a UCLA class provides students the opportunity to choose projects to work on as a service learning option. Students, with your or someone’s guidance, could help with your project either for the goal of helping your collaborators in some way, or particularly for the inclusion in the database (still either private or public or moderated in some way). To discuss any of these further, please reach out to us.
ADVISORY BOARD FAQ
Flagged/Reported Card Management
Q: As an Advisory Board member, I can see that some cards have the status of "pending." Should I do anything?
A: Yes, please adjust to approved/active. All of the original data was set to "pending" by machine learning if the categorization was not otherwise clear.