"Even for students who do not go on to professional research careers, the exercise of carefully documenting the work they do with their data has important pedagogical benefits. When students know from the outset that they will be required to turn in documentation showing how they arrive at the results they report in their papers, they approach their projects in a much more organized way and keep much better track of their work at every phase of the research. Their understanding of what they are doing is therefore substantially enhanced, and I in turn am able to offer much more effective guidance when they come to me for help. 

Despite these benefits, methods of responsible research documentation are virtually, if not entirely, absent from the curricula of all the social sciences. Through Project TIER, we are engaging in a variety of activities that we hope will help change that situation."