Table of Contents
Index
Glossary
Table of Contents
Index
Glossary

  
Raw data m4a

The modularisation process
According to the guidelines, we should distinguish specific constituent modules Raw data and Treated results in the module Results in the case that information is lost or substantially gained when the data generated in the measurements or calculations are further treated. However, the distinction between raw data and treated results is not clear cut. Firstly, opinions may differ as to how large a difference between the raw data and the treated results warrants the creation of separate modules. Secondly, the question as to what is the output of a measurement depends on the experimental set-up, or rather on the interpretation of what is the set-up and what are tools for the treatment of the raw data. Filtering and integrating data can be seen as an integral part of the measurement, or as a subsequent step.

In A05 and A08, differential cross sections are measured and plotted in figures as $I(\theta)\sin\theta$ versus $\tau$, as is usual for this type of measurements. A08 also provides figures of detector signals versus laboratory angles. Those latter figures present the `raw detector signal' that has undergone a minimal treatment: for three of the four the curves, the measured points are substituted by interstitial points to reduce the statistical noise. The former figures, of the measured differential cross section, are the product of some more treatment. However, that treatment consists of straightforward mathematical manipulations that are performed by within the (computerised) set-up.

The results could have been treated significantly, by either deconvoluting the detector function and the measurements, or by convoluting that detector function with the calculations, so that the experimental and the theoretical results could be compared more precisely. But that was not necessary in this work, as the important features of the experimental and the theoretical results could be compared anyway.

We have presented the figures for the differential cross sections and the detector signals, as well as the figures of the rainbow structure and the general shape of the cross section, in the Treated results, rather than in a module Raw data. The reason is that in the guidelines we have stipulated that the primary results, i.e. the figures, are presented in the module Treated results, and that the `rawer', underlying Raw data are only included when they differ non-trivially from the Treated results. It is also possible to stipulate, in another modular model, the primacy of the Raw data, so that a modular article always contains a module Raw data and only a module Treated results in cases where the data have been treated significantly.

In the modular versions of A05 and A08, we have not represented any raw data, because the `really raw' data were not available in the original article. If the modular articles had been published directly in an electronic environment, raw data could have been represented in a module Raw data. Therefore, we have included a Raw data module in the example-articles, as an indication, but left it empty (A05-m4a).

We could neither base precise guidelines for the raw data on the analysis of a corpus of articles, nor discuss the feasibility and adequacy of Raw data modules, as the articles do no contain any raw data. The editorial board of an electronic modular journal can specify further guidelines for this module.

The resulting module
For example, Raw data modules fulfil the information need of readers who try to interpret the same experimental results with a different theory: the raw data may contain features that the author has filtered out or obscured for his presentation in the Treated results. Most readers will not be interested in the `really' raw data. The essay-type route, which the reader can follow when he is consulting the  discourse of the article, accordingly avoids the Raw data. Grouping these data in this module allows different readers to either focus on them or to skip them all, thus satisfying their respective requirements for efficiency.