Research Values in ACLED

Digital Humanities projects are evaluated not only by what they produce, but also by the values they practice. ACLED reflects several key DH values through its public mission, documented methodology, collaborative workflow, and commitment to making conflict and protest data accessible for analysis and public use.

Why Values Matter in Digital Humanities

In course materials, Digital Humanities is described as an interdisciplinary field that uses digital tools and computational methods to analyze, preserve, and share human culture. The course also stresses that Digital Humanities projects are collaborative, public-facing, and committed to documenting procedures, data, and results… meaning that values are built into project design rather than added afterward.

Transparency

Transparency is one of the clearest values visible in ACLED because the project makes its methodology public through codebooks, sourcing pages, and explanations of its review process. ACLED explains that data are coded weekly by experienced researchers and reviewed through multiple stages.

Openness and Accessibility

ACLED describes itself as an independent, impartial conflict monitor and presents its mission in terms of making conflict data and analysis accessible. ACLED supports access through downloadable files, the API, and data platforms that help different audiences work with the data in different ways.

Collaboration

DH course materials define the field as non-individual and team-based, and ACLED fits that model because its workflow depends on researchers, managers, final reviewers, and technical systems working together. ACLED’s process shows that its knowledge is produced collectively rather than by a single scholar or opaque automated system.

Local Knowledge and Diversity

ACLED’s sourcing documentation explains that researchers are hired for language skills and local or regional knowledge, and that sourcing strategies are built around local conditions rather than relying only on international reporting. This matters in DHbecause diversity concerns not only representation but also whose knowledge enters the digital record.

Why These Values Matter

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