Positioning
The positioning claim describes the geographic footprint of a specific unit. This includes the site or base of a unit, as well as the areas of operation (aoo) of a Unit.
Every positioning should be “pushed up” to parent units or the relation:related_unit:refs:assertion units, which have a relation that overlaps any Positioning claim for any subordinate Unit.
Example
The Myanmar Army contains ten light infantry divisions which control battalions. A citation references the 79 Infantry Battalion operating in Lashio Township on 2020-04-24, giving that battalion a positioning for Lashio Township on 2020-04-24. Other citations establish a relation between the 79 Infantry Battalion and the 99 Light Infantry Division before and after the positioning of the battalion to Lashio Township. In this case, a positioning claim for 99 Light Infantry Division operating in Lashio Township on 2020-04-24 should be created. The claim would be evidenced by the original citation for the 79 Infantry Battalion positioning in Lashio Township, along with all of the citations evidencing the relation between the 79 Infantry Battalion and the 99 Light Infantry Division. Best practice is to add a public_notes:meta to this claim as well to explain the connection for a general audience.
Often citation will evidence a positioning claim for an administrative area that includes smaller administrative areas. In these cases the researcher should enter claims for all possible administrative areas to capture the full claim being made in the citation.
Example
Nigeria is divided into 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory. These are further divided into Local Government Areas. If a citation states a Unit operates in Lagos State then claims should be entered for positionings of Lagos State as well as every Local Government Area within Lagos State.
Positioning: Summary of claim attributes
The table below summarizes the following dimensions of positioning claims:
Attribute label: a human readable label for the attribute
Status: whether the attribute is optional or required in a claim
Data type: the sort of data that can be entered into the attribute
Key name: a standardized name that simplifies attribute use in SFM databases
Attribute label |
Status |
Data type |
Key name |
|---|---|---|---|
type:claim |
required |
string |
|
status:meta |
required |
string |
|
researcher:meta |
required |
string |
|
internal_comments:meta |
optional |
string |
|
citation:refs:claim |
required |
strings<->uuids |
|
about_entity:ref:claim |
required |
uuid-string |
|
about_entity:name:qa |
optional |
string |
|
positioning:unit:refs:assertion |
required |
uuid-string |
|
positioning:unit:names:qa |
optional |
string |
|
positioning:types:assertion |
required |
string |
|
positioning:base_names:assertion |
optional |
string |
|
positioning:location:refs:assertion |
required |
uuid-string |
|
positioning:location:names:qa |
optional |
string |
|
first_precise:range |
optional |
string-date |
|
last_precise:range |
optional |
string-date |
|
first_imprecise:range |
optional |
string-date |
|
last_imprecise:range |
optional |
string-date |
|
starting:range |
required |
YN<->bool |
|
ending:range |
required |
YN<->bool |
|
starting_context:range |
optional |
string |
|
ending_context:range |
optional |
string |
|
public_notes:meta |
optional |
string |
|
type:entity |
required |
string |
|
Positioning: Details of claim attributes
This section contains further information about each attribute, including descriptions, examples of use, and guidance on use.
type:claim
Description
A field that defines what type of claim is being made.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:claim/type
Example of use
unit, positioning, relation, person, posting, incident
Guidance on use
Entering positioning defines the claim and defines the relevant fields to be used in further data entry about a positioning. For quality assurance purposes, entering positioning should create an error if there is any entry for fields tied to other types of claims, such as unit or relation.
status:meta
Description
A field that classifies the data in the claim.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:claim/statuses
Example of use
accepted, conflict, work_needed, issue
Guidance on use
Claims are marked accepted when all of the data can be entered in accordance with the guidance of this handbook. The conflict flag is used whenever a claim conflicts with another claim (or claims) and a review of citations show it to be the incorrect or false claim. A public_notes:meta should always accompany any conflict claim.
Example
Citations reference a unit 757 Light Infantry Battalion in 2008 and again in 2019 as part of the Myanmar Army. This conflicts with other citations before and after these dates which list all light infantry battalions of the army and do not include this unit. Further citations establish the general practice for numbering army units which provides further evidence that no such battalion exists. The unit and other claims related to the 757 Light Infantry Battalion should still be entered into the dataset, flagged with status:meta of the conflict, and have the status fully explained in a public_notes:meta.
If the data itself cannot be brought into the SFM standard the flag issue should be used. Finally, if the current citations cannot establish whether a claim should be flagged as accepted or conflict then the flag work_needed should be used as additional research is needed.
researcher:meta
Description
Field for initials or other identifier of researcher who last entered data for the claim.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:meta/researchers
Example of use
TW, Jane_Doe, G1
Guidance on use
Every researcher should use this field to mark the claims that they have entered. Anytime a researcher modifies any data for an existing claim they should update this field so that any questions can be directed to the right person and the flow of work can be better tracked.
internal_comments:meta
Description
A field for temporary comments or notes for the researcher or research team working on the claim.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is optional.
Key name
:meta/internal-comments
Example of use
Come back to this to determine date for claim
Guidance on use
Researchers may use this field to make temporary notes or leave temporary comments intended for others in the research team about a claim. These should eventually be addressed and the field cleared by the researcher or research team. If the claim needs an explanatory note or comment to be better understood, then that should be entered in the public_notes:meta field.
citation:refs:claim
Description
Field unique 32 character code assigned to citation(s) evidencing the claim.
Attribute type
String in UUID format
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:claim/citation:refs
Example of use
69dba35b-2b70-47cf-bfda-f80225f652c6, 4e99308c-f9c0-49e8-b97b-14c1e7bcb99d;bedf57b2-c20b-41e3-9dcf-b7b065eaa3b7
Guidance on use
Every claim must have at least one citation to evidence the data in the claim. When two or more citations are needed to evidence a claim then a corresponding explanatory note should be entered in the public_notes:meta field. This field is for the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) for each citation, found in the ref:source:access_point_id:admin field in the Sources sheet. When multiple citations are needed every UUID should be semi-colon separated.
about_entity:ref:claim
Description
A unique 32 character code assigned to each entity in the dataset.
Attribute type
String in UUID format
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:claim/about-entity:ref
Example of use
521ebf18-f161-4ac9-8c72-5a246efa0458
Guidance on use
Every claim has a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) to distinguish it from any other claim. For a positioning this UUID distinguishes it from any other positioning in the dataset.
Each positioning is always treated as a contiguous, meaning it has the same UUID, unless citations establish it is non-contiguous.
A positioning should always be given the same UUID if there is an overlap or if the time-ranges of two or more citations fall within 1 day of each other.
Example
Citations establish that the 502 Light Infantry Battalion is part of a mobile formation which is deployed around Myanmar for operations, and because of this positioning claims should not be treated as contiguous. However, there are two different claims that the 502 Light Infantry Battalion has a positioning site of Mantong Township, one claim on 2013-04-19 and the other on 2013-04-20. Because these two claims are within a day of each other, they are coded as part of the same positioning giving the 502 Light Infantry Battalion a positioning site of Mantong Township from at least 2013-04-19 to at least 2013-04-20. Another claim giving the 502 Light Infantry Battalion a positioning site of Mantong Township on 2014-04-20 is coded as a separate, non-contiguous positioning because of the citations stating that the battalion is part of a mobile formation which is deployed around Myanmar for operations.
about_entity:name:qa
Description
Field that provides human readable name for entity.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is optional.
Key name
:claim/about-entity:ref
Example of use
510 Light Infantry Battalion in Nansang Township
Guidance on use
This field provides a human readable counterpart to the about_entity:ref:claim, and combines the various elements of the claim into a single text field. This field can be manually added by a researcher or automatically populated by the system after import.
positioning:unit:refs:assertion
Description
The unique 32 character code assigned to the unit about which a relationship is described in the claim.
Attribute type
String in UUID format, selected from existing unit records
Status
This attribute is required.
Key name
:assertion/positioning:unit:refs
Example of use
a407be6a-28e6-4237-b4e9-307f27b1202e
Guidance on use
The UUID entered into positioning:unit:refs:assertion must match the about_entity:ref:claim of a unit that already exists within the dataset.
positioning:unit:names:qa
Description
Name of the unit with the positioning.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is optional
Key name
:assertion/positioning:unit:refs
Example of use
148 Infantry Battalion
Guidance on use
This is human readable name for the unit with the positioning. The field can be manually entered or automatically populated by the system. Best practice for this field is to use the name:annotation for the unit.
positioning:types:assertion
Description
The type of location of a unit.
Attribute type
String selected from controlled list
Status
This attribute is optional
Key name
:assertion/positioning:types
Example of use
site, aoo
Guidance on use
This field defines the relationship between a unit and a location. The Staff Researcher must choose one of the two options below:
site: the Location describes a “site”, such as a settlement or specific point, at which the unit is based.
aoo: the Location in describes an area, such as an administrative area, where the unit is known to have conducted operations or has territorial jurisdiction.
The type of Location may be different from the way that the Location is described. For example, a small geographic area like a suburb is a geometric area but it could be used to describe a “site” for a unit. Locations themselves are a mix of geographical primatives - points, lines and polygons. This is why Locations are defined independently of their relationship to Units and Incidents.
positioning:base_names:assertion
Description
A base is a distinctively named building or complex - like a barracks or camp - where the unit is located.
Attribute type
String
Status
This attribute is optional
Key name
:assertion/positioning:base-names
Example of use
Leopard Base, Bonny Camp
Guidance on use
The positioning:base_names:assertion attribute adds unit-specific context about a Location. This field is used to record data about units that are located in a distinctively-named building or complex which is not found in the gazeteer, or otherwise cannot be represented as a geographic datapoint.
Example
The 3 Battalion in Nigeria is cited as being based in the Lubanga Barracks in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria.
This field should not be used for anything that matches the name or alias of a unit. For example, North Sector Police Station should not be put in this field if the name of the unit is North Sector Police Station.
positioning:location:refs:assertion
Description
Unique 32 character identifier of a Location where the unit has a “site” or “area of operations”.
Attribute type
String in UUID format, selected from id:entity in locations sheet.
Status
This attribute is optional.
Key name
:assertion/positioning:location:refs
Example of use
93dcc4a8-8335-4a21-8372-a151c4972c54 (which is the raw ID for Ikorodu (osm, point) 93dcc4a8-8335-4a21-8372-a151c4972c54)
Guidance on use
This attribute is used to store a reference to a location at which the unit is based, or has operated. The value included in this attribute must be selected from id:entity in the Locations sheet. For further guidance on the creation, management and use of Locations visit the Locations documentation.
The :assertion/positioning:location:refs should always be the location covering the largest possible area.
Example
In Myanmar there is a region of Magway, which contains Magway District. The district contains Magway Township, and the township contains the city of Magway. If a unit is described as being based in “Magway” the site used in data entry should be Magway Region.
positioning:location:names:qa
Description
Name of the location.
Attribute type
Text string
Status
This attribute is optional
Key name
:assertion/positioning:location:refs
Example of use
Hpruso Township (osm, poly) fd51e411-0a21-439c-ba3b-b6aa787541d1
Guidance on use
The best practice for this field is to use the location:humane_id:qa of the positioning:location:refs:assertion.
first_precise:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
last_precise:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
first_imprecise:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
last_imprecise:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
starting:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
ending:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
starting_context:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
ending_context:range
Full guidance on rationale for and differences between precise and imprecise date ranges, the use of this attribute can be found in the Handbook page How Dates Work.
public_notes:meta
Description
Additional context or details about the claim for a public audience.
Attribute type
String
Status
This attribute is optional.
Key name
:meta/public-notes
Example of use
Citation @3c981094-fb7b-4b78-b8f6-b525a03f72b5, published on 15 July 2019, states that numerous military appointments occurred "last week". This is understood to mean the week starting the previous Sunday 7 July 2019 through Saturday 13 July 2019.
Guidance on use
This field should be used whenever any claim requires additional explanation because for a general reader the claim is not clearly and directly stated in the citation. In the “Example of Use” above a citation published on 15 July 2019 refers to something happening “last week” and as a result a researcher has determined the previous Sunday 7 July 2019 through Saturday 13 July 2019 should be entered into the appropriate fields of first_imprecise:range and last_imprecise:range. That range would not be immediately clear to a public audience since neither date is directly referenced in the text of the citation. As a result, the researcher should explain how that date range was evidenced by the citation.
type:entity
Description
Specifies the type of entity.
Attribute type
Text, controlled vocabulary.
Status
This field is required.
Key name
:entity/type
Example of use
claim
Guidance on use
For a positioning the only entry allowed for this field is claim.