Research and Editorial Guidelines

Centre for Gender and Politics (CGAP) aims to lead policy thinking towards a free, fair and equal political representation and participation of women in South Asia. We are committed to replace narratives that define women as victims, with recognition and celebration of women's achievements as political and community leaders. 

 

Our initiatives include Beyond Victims, where we highlight achievements of women political leaders and change-makers from across South Asia. The Worth Asking interview series brings to light the perspectives on women’s participation and representation in politics. Apart from utilising new media like blogs, interviews and podcasts to engage citizens of South Asia, CGAP also undertakes studies contributing to research, evidence and policy advocacy in the broad areas of gender and politics.

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Research Roadmap 

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Ideation

The Project Lead will finalise the aim of the research project, deliverables, timeline and team strength requirements, after consultation with technical advisors or mentors, as required. This will then be shared with other Project Leads for peer review and the CEO for final approval.

 

Research Planning and Design

The Project Lead will build a detailed Project Tracker highlighting each project milestone and will onboard research volunteers as required. An orientation and brainstorming session will be conducted with the research volunteers to acquaint them with to discuss project themes, seek inputs and, lay out expectations and deliverables for the project. All research volunteers are free to explore ideas and contribute to the length and breadth of CGAP’s work.

 

Execution

The Project Team will undertake preliminary literature review, survey tool designing, consultations, interviews, report building as required for the project. During the project period the Project Lead must hold at least one weekly update to track the progress of each team member, guide them when necessary and ensure a stress-free experience.

 

Editing and Publishing

After the Project has been completed, it will be shared with the Editor for final review, fact-checking and proof-reading. The Designer will design the final product for publishing. The Project Lead must coordinate with the Editor and Designer on any clarifications and suggestions. The final product must be approved by the CEO before publishing.

 

CGAP follows the APA 7th edition citation style for all research outputs. The following is a list of tools to help with citations: Scribbr, MyBib, Lifewire

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Research Ethics

 

Research Integrity

Researchers must maintain trustworthiness, honesty and sincerity in their work. Research ideation, methods, analysis and reporting must follow good academic practices which honors copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. CGAP will maintain integrity in providing due credit to all employees and volunteers for their work and contribution.

 

Plagiarism and Originality

Plagiarism, fabrication and misleading the readers is prohibited and will lead to cancellation of the volunteer’s work. Honest errors or differences in opinions are acceptable.

 

Acknowledgements and Citations

The researchers must give credit where it’s due. All published work must acknowledge contributors, collaborators, and sources used, in the prescribed citation format.

 

Objectivity

Researchers must not allow their personal opinions, biases and political affiliations to impact research design, data collection and analysis, writing, reviews and other important aspects of research.

 

Confidentiality

All confidential internal communications and outputs, such as documents, working papers, data collected, employee records, must be protected and not shared with those outside of CGAP. 

 

Laws and regulations 

Research work must violate any legal and regulatory requirements, and must be in accordance with health and safety standards. All necessary licenses and approvals must be acquired before initiating the project.

 

Research involving people

The research process must respect human dignity, privacy, autonomy and rights and must cause no harm to research participants during the duration of the Project.

 

Conflict of Interest

CGAP will identify, manage and monitor circumstances as well as associations that may give rise to a conflict of interest. Researchers are also expected to declare any conflict of interest they might encounter during the Project timeline.

 

Sharing Research Outputs

While sharing research outputs, confidentiality must not be breached. No research output shall be shared or published on the CGAP website, without the CEO’s permission. No research output shall be shared externally, until it is published on the CGAP website. 

 

Changes and Modifications

CGAP reserves the right to change, use or modify any research output that it has commissioned and owns

 

Liability

CGAP will not be held accountable for opinions or research outputs of external authors that have been published on the CGAP website or social media. External authors are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

 

Ownership of the research - IPR

All research and data collection undertaken by CGAP volunteers and employees shall be owned by CGAP. CGAP will decide on the creating, maintenance and sharing of all research outputs.

If you wish to write or carry out research for CGAP, please write to us at akhil@cgapsouthasia.org

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Developed by Akshita with additional inputs from Aparna and Sanika