DOCUMENTATION OF ERA REPORTS

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP62S00231A000100020016-5
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
U
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
December 12, 2016
Document Release Date: 
October 23, 1998
Sequence Number: 
16
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 3, 1952
Content Type: 
MEMO
File: 
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PDF icon CIA-RDP62S00231A000100020016-5.pdf144.17 KB
Body: 
SA RD FORM NO. apDprove For R00 200 131 A0001,QP020016-5 Office Memorandum ? UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Chief, Economic Research, ORR FROM : Chief, Materials Division, ORR SUBJECT: Documentation of ERA Reports REF : Your memo, same subject, 25 September 1958 DATE: 3 October 1958 1. After having considered the proposal advanced at the recent Staff Meeting regarding changes in procedures for documentation and having discussed this with the D/M Branch Chiefs, I feel very strongly that gains from the proposal would not be worth the cost and that present procedures should not be altered. 2. As you note in referenced memo, the objective of eliminating or reducing documentation is to speed up the editing, typin?;, and reproduction of reports; present procedures for documentation are to be retained through the review stage. This means that the analyst would initially document as he has been doing all along. After review is completed, he would then be asked either to eliminate or to reduce documentation. The question of elimination is discussed below. If documentation were reduced, then the analyst would have to spend additional time preparing a second statement of documentation. More- over, editing frequently results in the elimination of material and hence in a change in the original list of sources. It would thus be necessary for the analyst to conform his documentation so that a clean and correct copy of the documentation can be deposited in St/PC. Thus, his work load would be increased as compared with the present. I can see no net saving in time for ERA as a whole and I am not wildly in favor of reducing St/PB's load at the expense of the analyst. In addition: a. If sourcing is done through textual statements, as a partial or complete substitute for source citations, reports will tend to become longer and less readable. In addition, the objections in 3 below would apply, to a lesser degree than for complete elimination of sourcing. b. If sourcing is done in narrative fashion, in an appendix, the objections in 3 below would also apply, but to a lesser degree than for complete elimination of sourcing. 3. The comments in 2 above beg the question of whether docu- mentation should be eliminated altogether. I would be against doing Approved For Release 2001/0 "??3lA000100020016-5 OR OTMIU, aLy Approved For Release 20103/02 : CIA-RDP62S00231A0000020016-5 SUBJECT: Documentation of ERA Reports a. We are talkie;; here about a fraction of our production, to wit RR's and PR's. Many IM's are not now documented, and I believe that documentation is the exception rather than the rule. RR's and PR's represent our basic resee-ch, which adds to our fund of knowledge, and which serves as support for later research of a more estimative nature. It seems to me that this kind of research requires detailed documentation to accompany the report itself. b. It is perfectly true that most readers find no occasion ever to check the source references, but it is also true that when a person wants to do so he wants to do so very badly. For example, there have been many frustrations in this Division because we do not know the sources for statements contained in 25X1 X1 reports. c. Even if a reader does not need to look up a particular source reference, he can better judge the depth, nature, anxi quality of the research if the sources are attached to the report. Reference to a file copy in st/PC is impossible for an out- side reader and awkward for an inside reader. Moreover, the documeir ation attached to a published report becomes as much a part of the record as the report itself. Hence, long after the research is complete and the report published, one can discover from the list of sources the extent of the research and evaluate the validity and currency of the con- clusions. a. Very often a finished report on a given aaubject will contain Material related to another field. In these not infrequent cases, the ready availability of a source reference is a great convenience to the reader in this other field. e. More generally, the use of source re"- erences is one aspect of good scholarship. Although documentation would be maintained through the review stage, so-that in principal this proposal would be neutral with respect to the analyst, I Approved For Release 2001/03/02 IA-RDP62SO0231A000100020016-5 ONU Iff IM, FOR f ? JfORfa, ONLY -Approved For Release 200?1493/02 : CIA-RDP62S00231A000W0020016-5 6UBJECT: Documentation of ERA Reports fear that increasing the quantity of unsourced reports would have an adverse psychological effect on the anal;; st . 25X1A9a Approved For Release 2001/03/02 9!- 0-231A000100020016-5 ORRY