Contacting Editors about ATI in Articles


We provide two templates for contacting editors/journals about ATI: if you are looking to include ATI annotations in the peer review process or if you want to include ATI in the publication of an accepted manuscript. Feel free to edit these as you see fit.

Using ATI During Peer Review

Dear [Editors],

[OTHER INFORMATION THE AUTHOR WISHES TO OFFER]

Also, in order to augment the transparency and evaluability of my work, I have used Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI), a technique for making qualitative research more transparent. Similar to conventional supplementary materials, I believe the ATI annotations significantly strengthen my manuscript and I would very much like to make them accessible to reviewers as well as included in the publication should my piece be accepted.

I’m including below some information on ATI provided by the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), which developed the technique. QDR has indicated that they can help facilitate any technical aspects, maintaining the double-blindness of the peer review process, and answer any related questions. The peer review process for articles with ATI annotations should be very similar to that for articles without such annotation, and should entail no additional work on the part of editors.

Please let me know if you think it will be possible to include my ATI annotations in the review process. I am happy to answer any questions you might have about the annotations, their content, or the process of making them accessible to reviewers and, ultimately, readers of your journal.

What Is ATI?

Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) facilitates transparency in qualitative research by allowing scholars to “annotate” specific passages in an article. Annotations appear as a digital overlay to text appearing on any web page. Annotations amplify the text and, when possible, include a link to one or more data sources underlying a claim. Data sources that are linked to the publication can be housed in a dedicated data repository. QDR provides additional information on ATI: https://qdr.syr.edu/ati . An example of ATI for a published article can be seen here: http://bit.ly/ati-kreuzer

How Can ATI be Integrated with Double-Blind Peer Review?

My/Our submitted manuscript includes a link to an identical, anonymized manuscript at QDR that shows the ATI annotations as they would appear alongside a published article. It also includes a link to an anonymized version of the associated data project at QDR including additional documentation [and data files].

or

I have included the ATI annotations as supplementary material. On the published article, the annotations would appear directly alongside the annotated text.

How Does the Publication Process Work for Papers with ATI Annotations?

If an ATI-annotated manuscript is accepted for publication, QDR will handle the annotation of the article once published. The annotations represent a “digital layer” on top of the published article, appearing exactly where and how the article appears on the journal web page: there is no additional annotated copy of the article. ATI annotations will be added as quickly as possible after the article appears online, always within two business days.

We ask that authors include a data availability statement in their papers that references QDR (available here: https://qdr.syr.edu/ati/ati-instructions#data-availability-statement).

How Can Readers See ATI Annotations

The default view of the published article does not show any annotations. Readers can view the annotations in association with the published article by clicking on a dedicated link in the data availability statement or on the landing page for the supplementary data on QDR. (Here is an example of a landing page for supplementary data on QDR for the article mentioned earlier: https://doi.org/10.5064/F6OAEIDA )

Using ATI after acceptance.

Dear [Editors],

[OTHER INFORMATION THE AUTHOR WISHES TO OFFER]

Also, in order to augment the transparency and evaluability of my work, I have used Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI), a technique for making qualitative research more transparent. Similar to conventional supplementary materials, I believe the ATI annotations significantly strengthen my manuscript and I would very much like to make them accessible to reviewers as well as included in the publication should my piece be accepted.

I’m including below some information on ATI provided by the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), which developed the technique.

How Does the Publication Process Work for Papers with ATI Annotations?

If an ATI-annotated manuscript is accepted for publication, QDR will handle the annotation of the article once published. The annotations represent a “digital layer” on top of the published article, appearing exactly where and how the article appears on the journal web page: there is no additional annotated copy of the article. ATI annotations will be added as quickly as possible after the article appears online, always within two business days.

We ask that authors include a data availability statement in their papers that references QDR (available here: https://qdr.syr.edu/ati/ati-instructions#data-availability-statement).

How Can Readers See ATI Annotations

The default view of the published article does not show any annotations. Readers can view the annotations in association with the published article by clicking on a dedicated link in the data availability statement or on the landing page for the supplementary data on QDR. (Here is an example of a landing page for supplementary data on QDR for the article mentioned earlier: https://doi.org/10.5064/F6OAEIDA )