Implications of constructing a pre-analysis plan in Open-Source GIS Research

Pre-planning an analysis in the manner of our Gerrymandering Case Study (which utilizes a detailed research compendium) can be beneficial to researchers, as it forces them to more closely understand their data sources before analysis, and to be more mindful in how they approach working with the data in order to avoid potential sources of error. It makes public the thought processes that researchers may entertain on their way to constructing their code and analysis. A pre-analysis plan can also show the perspectives and information that researchers had prior to conducting research, as it could inform the outcomes of the research. Finally, this approach also helps to front-load work documenting metadata and organization/explanation of code that the researchers would need to complete later before publishing their research. Pre-planning an analysis ensures that subsequent code can be more legible to other researchers and more intentional in general. It is for all of these reasons that this aspect of a research compendium in reproducible, open-source GIS research is an important premilinary step for researchers.