While not being distracted by MoR discussions—right now, I am working on a little statistical analysis of the number of links provided by my Google Alerts since 2007 to see whether the number really has declined; it’s a fun use of multi-level modeling.
Besides that, I’ve been acquiring lithium papers to maybe do a meta-analysis of the drinking water correlations.
The n-back meta-analysis continues to grow, and I’ve finally acquired the largest missing study; the final study, I have been refused the data by Jaeggi. I am thinking of filing a FOIA request to the funding agency at the University of Michigan; does anyone know the best way to go about this?
I have very little personal knowledge of FOIA, and this is written assuming that you know have no personal experience with it (so if you do, I suspect this will read as condescending, which is not my intent). I suspect that short of hiring / recruiting a politically influential person (relevant to UMich) to help, this is all the useful advise available (for better or worse).
Beware administrative (search) costs and copying costs.
Try to describe the data you want in a way that (a) makes it easy for the searcher to determine if something is responsive to your request, and (b) makes it seem like finding the documents will be really easy for some mindless bureaucrat to find. In writing the request, assume the professor will never personally do anything to grant the request, and a grad student might spend 5 minutes pointing towards a filing cabinet.
Additionally, politeness and clarity are under-rated virtues in the practical invocation of legal rights.
Hi. This is a FOIA request for X. Thanks for your help.
That’s a good template for the first draft of the FOIA letter.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve tried pinging a different person at the relevant agency in another try at avoiding FOIA at all, but I’ve also emailed an EFF dude who I was recommended for some advice on how to do a request.
While not being distracted by MoR discussions—right now, I am working on a little statistical analysis of the number of links provided by my Google Alerts since 2007 to see whether the number really has declined; it’s a fun use of multi-level modeling.
Besides that, I’ve been acquiring lithium papers to maybe do a meta-analysis of the drinking water correlations.
The n-back meta-analysis continues to grow, and I’ve finally acquired the largest missing study; the final study, I have been refused the data by Jaeggi. I am thinking of filing a FOIA request to the funding agency at the University of Michigan; does anyone know the best way to go about this?
And I continue to procrastinate on finishing my sand essay, but at least I did finish writing a little essay about a Cordwainer Smith short story.
I have very little personal knowledge of FOIA, and this is written assuming that you know have no personal experience with it (so if you do, I suspect this will read as condescending, which is not my intent). I suspect that short of hiring / recruiting a politically influential person (relevant to UMich) to help, this is all the useful advise available (for better or worse).
Beware administrative (search) costs and copying costs.
Try to describe the data you want in a way that (a) makes it easy for the searcher to determine if something is responsive to your request, and (b) makes it seem like finding the documents will be really easy for some mindless bureaucrat to find. In writing the request, assume the professor will never personally do anything to grant the request, and a grad student might spend 5 minutes pointing towards a filing cabinet.
Additionally, politeness and clarity are under-rated virtues in the practical invocation of legal rights.
That’s a good template for the first draft of the FOIA letter.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve tried pinging a different person at the relevant agency in another try at avoiding FOIA at all, but I’ve also emailed an EFF dude who I was recommended for some advice on how to do a request.