Contribution Guidelines

Users are encouraged to contribute to the portal in two ways:

• rate and review materials already loaded onto the portal
• upload new documents onto the portal

Rate & review

When you open a document summary page (e.g. after doing a search), you are invited to give a star rating for the document, and also to write a brief comment giving your thoughts on the document.  The star rating is entirely up to you, and is intended to reflect your views on the document; for example:

• how valuable it is in terms of reflecting the impact of communications in the sector
• how useful it is likely to be in influencing policy debate
• how useful it is likely to be to your work

However, it will help other users to understand your star rating if you also add a review which explains why you gave it the star rating you did.

You are strongly encouraged to give documents a star rating (which can be done anonymously), as this is how the site is moderated by users.  Users are free to upload any documents they feel constitute compelling evidence, but it is only by other users awarding star ratings that high quality and relevant items can be identified.

Upload new materials

Many development institutions have recognised the need to demonstrate the impact of communications and ICTs, so new research and evaluations are being published all the time.  Users of the portal are encouraged to add any new materials, or other materials that they believe constitute robust evidence on the impact of communications in development.

The portal presents materials that demonstrate the impact of communications in a number of development sectors.  When thinking about materials to upload, please consider the following guidelines:

• robust evidence - case studies, anecdotes and stories abound (and can be powerful in getting a message across), but the portal focuses on more robust analysis; in particular, survey data or quantitative analysis
• balanced view - policy will be improved by appropriate communication, so it is important to highlight both what works and what doesn't
• links can be created to any type of web based materials, although these will tend to be documents or web sites

Any user can upload a document or web link (URL), but you will need to be registered first.  Other users can then search for other documents uploaded by you.

Make a Contribution