Why "operationalizable questions"?
Why are we seeking these pivotal questions to be 'operationalizable'?
This is in line with our own focus on this type of research
The Unjournal evaluating (largely empirical) research that clearly poses and answers specific impactful questions, rather than research that seeks to define a question, survey a broad landscape of other research, open routes to further inquiry, etc.
I think this will help us focus on fully-baked questions, where the answer is likely to provide actual value to the target organization and others (and avoid the old ‘42’ trap).
It offers potential for benchmarking and validation (e.g., using prediction markets), specific routes to measure our impact (updated beliefs, updated decisions), and informing the 'claim identification (and assessment)' we’re asking from evaluators (see footnote above).
However, as this initiative progresses we may allow a wider range of questions, e.g., more open-ended, multi-outcome, non-empirical (perhaps ‘normative), and best-practice questions.
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