Research participation

In brief. This page explains how your contributions support Bracket's research and the separate choice to allow research about your background as an observer. In Bracket, only you and the project owner can read your notes. The collated dataset is restricted to authorised programme researchers and named collaborators under written handling conditions. Optional background research can be declined or withdrawn without losing account access or earned credit. Write to contact@bracketresearch.org with questions or requests.

1. The research programme

Bracket studies how the UN climate negotiations proceed inside meetings: which delegation speaks, which text it addresses, the tactics used and how the text changes. Researchers observe sessions, starting with COP31, and record notes, tags and citations using a shared method. Attendance and practice information help interpret how observations were collected.

Matthew Winkler leads the programme independently and is the controller: the person who decides why and how personal data is used. The controller uses the project owner's account. An author's institutional affiliation does not by itself make that institution responsible for Bracket. The programme is separate from the controller's doctoral thesis.

Joining makes your observations available for the agreed programme research under the Terms of use. The Privacy notice explains how data is handled. Neither joining nor reading this page grants consent to optional research about your background.

2. What happens to your contributions

You write notes during or after meetings and review their coding. The project owner reads them alongside other observations, analyses the tags and citations, and prepares programme outputs. Your coding remains attributed to your contribution; disagreements between observers can be analysed rather than silently resolved into one account.

Only the project owner creates collated exports. A usual export replaces identities with stable labels within a conference. It omits background details, edit history and, by default, reflections and the text of closed notes. The project owner can identify who wrote what, and context may identify someone to colleagues. Labels are pseudonyms, not anonymity.

An identified export is a separate, recorded choice for authorised analysis. It includes identity and, where the researcher has consented, background details. The project owner can choose to include note history, including earlier or deleted wording. Emergency contacts are excluded from research exports. Export choices are recorded with the file.

Authorised recipients receive only the data needed for agreed work and must follow written handling conditions. Being on the team does not itself grant access to the collated dataset. Quotations from notes are attributed to delegations or groups, subject to confidentiality conditions. A contributor's identity is not attached to a delegation's conduct without agreement.

3. Optional research about observers

The optional background fields describe observers' nationality, country of residence, birth year, gender, discipline and experience of the negotiations. In Bracket, these fields are visible only to you and the project owner. Their research purpose is to understand the observers and interpret their contributions. The emergency contact has a separate fieldwork safety purpose.

Your profile offers this choice:

I agree that my optional background details may be used to study observers in the Bracket research programme. The project owner may link them with my identity and contributions for that analysis. This excludes my emergency contact. I can withdraw this choice here.

The box is unchecked for a new account. Agreement is optional, recorded separately from terms acceptance, and records the wording, choice and time. To withdraw, use “Withdraw research consent” in your profile, or untick the box and save. You can also contact the controller.

Withdrawal stops future use covered by that consent and future inclusion of those details in exports. The controller follows up with recipients of previously shared copies. Withdrawal does not make earlier lawful use unlawful; already published analysis may not be retractable. Requests are assessed individually. Declining or withdrawing affects neither your account nor the use of your notes under the programme arrangements.

4. Credit and your own work

Contributions receive credit in the outputs that use them. Before fieldwork, contributors will receive the proposed outputs, collaboration and authorship arrangements, with a way to raise concerns. The written authorship arrangement is not yet settled; it will be circulated before fieldwork. It will explain how contributors participate in drafting, approve publications and agree author lists and acknowledgements. Earned credit remains when a researcher leaves.

You may use your own notes in your thesis or papers, crediting the project and following the same confidentiality and no-delegate-names rules. Tell the project owner before submitting so that overlapping uses can be discussed. Access to other contributors' notes or the collated dataset requires a separate programme arrangement. Operating Bracket alone does not entitle its owner to authorship of your paper.

Your institution may have ethics or data-management requirements for your own research. Check those before using contributions in work submitted there. Bracket does not claim institutional ethics approval through any member's affiliation.

5. Public release and your rights

Public dataset release is outside the agreed programme scope. Any proposal needs a separate decision, appropriate contributor terms and information, and a review of identification risks, confidentiality, source rights and conditions of public access. Contributors will be told what is proposed and given an opportunity to raise objections. No public release of note text is assumed.

You can download your own notes and request access to other personal information held about you. You may ask to correct, restrict or erase information, or object to continued processing. Requests are assessed individually; neither a copyright licence nor research status removes applicable rights. The Privacy notice explains retention and how to contact the controller or a data-protection authority.