The Advisory Board (AB) of the project is tasked with overseeing activities and ensuring adherence to data protocol and publication policy.

Data Validation

It ensures the reliability and accuracy of content and discourse analysis, which is critical for maintaining the integrity of the study. The AB will consider the following measures: 

1. 1. Verification of Source Authenticity: to confirm that all journalistic materials are from legitimate, influential newspapers as defined in the working paper. 
   2. Consistency Checks: to ensure coding consistency by developing and applying a detailed codebook and conducting training sessions for researchers to ensure the uniform understanding and application of categories.
   3. Outlier Detection: to identify and examine anomalies in content analysis, such as unexpected tones or frames to validate their legitimacy.
   4. Pilot Study:  to refine coding and identify potential ambiguities.
   5. Inter-Coders Reliability: to calculate inter-coder agreement metrics (85% using Cohen’s Kappa) and confirm consistency across analysts.
   6. Principal Investigators working in the participating states have to consult with the AB when selecting the two target newspapers or when adding new members or assistants to their research teams in their home states.  

Data Sharing, Ownership and Publication Policies  *

1. 1. In accordance with principles and respect for intellectual property rights, national datasets are owned by their respective Principal Investigators.
   2. Data owners as defined above retain the right to withdraw their state datasets from “The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Project” data file at any time.
   3. National datasets will be evaluated for validity, reliability, and integrity. Any identified data issues will be discussed with the respective Principal Investigators and, where possible, resolved collaboratively. Particular attention will be given to issues such as inter-coders reliability, missing variables, timeframe, discourse analysis issues, the two reports of U.S., home state relationship and media –state parallelism, the chosen type of the international relation with the U.S. and media-state parallelism. 
   4. The AB will thoroughly review the methodological documentation from all states to ensure that the overall content analysis and discourse analysis align with the project’s methodological framework.
   5. The AB will provide recommendations on the eligibility of a national dataset for inclusion in “The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Project” consolidated data file, based on comprehensive assessments of data quality and adherence to the project methodological framework.
   6. “The 2024 U.S Presidential Election Project” is a personal initiative developed and led by Prof. Dr. Basyouni Hamada, the founder of the project and Lead Principal Investigator (FLPI).  At the same time, it is a collaborative endeavor, with all research team members contributing to the refinement of its tools and conceptual framework. Consequently, collaborative publication and collective authorship should serve as the primary means of disseminating the study’s findings to both academic and non-academic audiences.
   7. Principal Investigators are free to utilize “The 2024 U.S. Presidential  Election Project” Data File for any type of comparative analyses and publications and they must acknowledge both The 2024 U.S. Presidential  Election Project as the intellectual context and the collaborative nature of the project.
   8. Premature use of datasets (without clearance from the AB) should be avoided, as it may result in inconsistent findings across different publications. States’ teams may begin publishing national results once the AB has cleaned their dataset. 
   9. Principal Investigators will be denied access to The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Project “Data File” if their national data files are found to be fraudulent or (partially or fully) fabricated, if the analysis does not meet the criteria outlined in working paper. 
   10. Publications based on national data or a selection of The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Project “Data File” states must acknowledge the broader context of the project and the collaborative nature of the research.
   11. Deadline for national data sets submission by PIs is July 15. However, late submissions after this deadline will be considered for those who join the project late or those who face unexpected circumstances.
   12. The consolidated project data file will be shared with all Principal Investigators whose data files meet the criteria specified in the proposal.
   13. Co-authorship may be claimed if an individual has made an active and substantive contribution to the publication in question.
   14. Contributing a state data file to the project data file does not automatically qualify data owners for co-authorship of publications.
   15. The Founder and Lead Principal Investigator (FLPI) of the project, Prof. Dr. Basyouni Hamada, retains the right to contribute to any journal articles, publications or conference presentations derived from the project. The inclusion of his name in the author’s order will be based on the extent of his work, time investment, and intellectual contribution to the publication. 
   16. To ensure rigorous analysis, statistical work for project publications will be centrally managed by Dr. Abdel-Salam G. Abdel-Salam, a member of the Advisory Board from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Qatar University. Dr. Abdel-Salam holds a Ph.D. in Statistics (2009) from Virginia Tech, U.S. However, research teams with statistical analysis expertise are free to conduct their own analyses.

*Data Sharing, Ownership and Publication Policies are based on worlds of Journalism Study “WJS” model.