Methodology
How Linden Study turns information into useful context.
A transparent publication standard for course facts, faculty profiles, ratings, summaries, requirements, and future seat information.
1. Collect with permission
Before publishing data, Linden Study should record the source owner, access method, applicable terms, permitted use, fields collected, attribution requirements, and last successful refresh.
Public visibility or technical accessibility does not by itself establish permission to reproduce or automate access to information.
2. Normalize without hiding meaning
Course codes, academic terms, names, departments, and rating scales may be standardized so records can be compared. The transformation must preserve the source meaning and remain traceable.
Professor identity matching uses available names, teaching records, departments, and public profile evidence. Ambiguous people should not be merged merely because first and last names appear similar.
3. Label confidence and freshness
Published facts and metrics should show whether they come from an official public source, a permitted third party, a Linden Study contribution, or an experimental process. Pages should include sample size, covered terms, and update time when those details exist.
Missing data is displayed as unavailable rather than inferred. An experimental label describes uncertainty and does not create permission to use a source.
4. Explain ratings and workload
Aggregates are presented with the response count and the scale used. A workload score is translated using the published weekly-effort bands: 1 is up to one hour, 2 is one to three hours, 3 is four to six hours, 4 is seven to nine hours, and 5 is ten or more hours per week.
Course-experience and instructor ratings measure different prompts. A review reflects a contributor's experience and is not an official finding or universal prediction.
5. Publish requirements carefully
Requirement labels retain school, requirement group, cohort, and source context where available. A course may satisfy different requirements for different students or programs.
Students must confirm applicable Core, major, minor, prerequisite, and degree rules in official systems or with an advisor.
6. Correct and retire responsibly
Students, instructors, source owners, and other affected people may report objective errors. Linden Study should distinguish factual corrections from disagreement with an honestly held review and provide a consistent review process.
Information should be corrected, relabeled, removed, or de-indexed when identity, accuracy, permission, or usefulness can no longer be supported.