# Scoping Action — Governance Guidelines

These guidelines govern the quality and authorship standards for the **scoping** phase of a research mission. The deliverable of this phase is a research specification that frames the question, bounds the scope, and identifies stakeholders and constraints — before any methodology design or source gathering begins.

---

## Core Authorship Focus

- Frame the **research question** precisely. A good question is answerable, falsifiable (where possible), and bounded.
- Distinguish the **primary research question** from supporting **sub-questions**; both belong in the spec.
- State **what is in scope** and **what is explicitly out of scope**. Boundaries by time period, geography, domain, or population belong here.
- Identify **expected outcomes**: what artifacts will the research produce, and how will results be applied?
- Name the **research type** up front — Literature Review, Empirical Study, Case Study, or Meta-Analysis. The type drives downstream methodology choices but is itself a scoping decision.

---

## Stakeholders and Constraints

- Identify the **stakeholders** for the research outcome — who will read it, who will act on it, who is accountable for the questions it answers.
- Surface **constraints** early: time frame, available databases, budget, access restrictions, ethical considerations.
- A constraint that is invisible at scoping time becomes a methodology surprise later. Write them down.

---

## Success Criteria Standards

Success criteria for a research mission must be:

1. **Measurable** — e.g., "Review at least 50 peer-reviewed sources", "Identify 3+ validated patterns".
2. **Methodology-agnostic at the question level** — the criterion describes the research outcome, not the gathering technique.
3. **Verifiable** — another researcher can determine whether the criterion was met from the published artifacts.

---

## What This Phase Does NOT Cover

The scoping action produces the question, scope, stakeholders, constraints, and outcome targets. It does **not**:

- Design the research methodology in detail (that is the methodology action's job).
- Register sources or extract evidence (that is the gathering action's job).
- Synthesize findings or draw conclusions (that is the synthesis action's job).
- Prepare publication-ready output (that is the output action's job).

If a scoping deliverable starts specifying search strings, citation formats, or analysis frameworks, that work belongs in a later phase. Hand off cleanly.

---

## Quality Gates

- The research question is unambiguous and a reader can restate it without referring back to context.
- Scope boundaries are explicit. There is no `[NEEDS CLARIFICATION]` marker on the primary question itself.
- Expected outcomes are tied to stakeholder needs.
- Any unresolved ambiguity is captured as an explicit assumption, not buried in vague prose.
