EGAP Methods Website

This repository contains the source for the EGAP Methods website, a collection of methods guides for impact evaluation, along with software tools and teaching materials.

How to Contribute

We welcome contributions to improve existing guides, fix errors, add translations, or propose new content.

Reporting Issues

• Use GitHub Issues to report errors, suggest improvements, or propose new guides
• Please check existing issues before creating a new one

Making Changes

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a branch for your changes
3. Make your edits (see sections below for guidelines)
4. Test locally with quarto preview
5. Submit a pull request with a clear description of changes

When you make changes to one language version, note whether corresponding changes should be made to other language versions. If you can make the change in other languages, please do so.

Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Quarto (1.3 or later)
• R (4.0 or later)
• RStudio (recommended but not required)

Setup Steps

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/egap/methodsweb.git
cd methodsweb

# Restore R package dependencies (renv will activate automatically)
R -e "renv::restore()"

# Preview the site locally
quarto preview

The site will open in your browser with live reload enabled.

Building the Full Site

# Render all pages (outputs to _site/)
quarto render

# Render a single guide
quarto render guides/research-questions/effect-types_en.qmd

File Organization

Directory Structure

guides/
├── analysis-procedures/    # Statistical analysis methods
├── assessing-designs/      # Power, external validity
├── causal-inference/       # Causal inference fundamentals
├── data-collection/        # Randomization, measurement, sampling
├── implementation/         # Field implementation guidance
├── interpretation/         # Interpreting results
├── planning/               # Pre-analysis plans, survey design
└── research-questions/     # Effect types, mechanisms

File Naming Convention

All guide files use underscore + language code before .qmd:

• English: guide-name_en.qmd
• Spanish: guide-name_es.qmd
• French: guide-name_fr.qmd

Each guide also has associated files in the same directory:

• guide-name.bib — BibTeX references
• guide-name.png — Thumbnail image for listings

Writing Guides

Guide Template

Each guide should include YAML frontmatter:

---
title: "10 Things to Know About [Topic]"
author:
  - name: "Author Name"
    url: https://author-website.com/
image: guide-name.png
bibliography: guide-name.bib
abstract: |
  A brief summary of what this guide covers and who it is for.
---

For translated guides, also include sidebar: to enable the language switcher:

sidebar: guide-id  # Must match the id in _quarto.yml

Style Guidelines

• Guides follow a "10 Things to Know" format where appropriate
• Use clear, accessible language suitable for researchers and practitioners
• Include concrete examples and, where helpful, R code demonstrations
• Use numbered sections (#, ##) for the main points
• Cite sources using BibTeX references

Code Chunks

R code chunks should generally use:

{r}
#| echo: true
#| message: false
# Your code here

Code is folded by default (readers click to expand). Use #| code-fold: false for code that should always be visible.

Cross-References

When linking to other guides on the site, use absolute paths:

See [10 Things to Know About Causal Inference](https://methods.egap.org/guides/causal-inference/causal-inference_en.html)

Translations

Adding a New Translation

1. Copy the English version (guide-name_en.qmd) to a new file with the appropriate language suffix (e.g., guide-name_es.qmd)
2. Add sidebar: guide-id to the YAML frontmatter (use the same id as other translations of that guide)
3. Translate the content, keeping the same structure and section numbering
4. Update _quarto.yml to add the new language to the sidebar menu if needed

Translation Guidelines

• Maintain the same document structure as the English version
• Keep code chunks and their output unchanged (unless translating comments)
• Translate figure captions and alt text
• Keep bibliographic references unchanged

Adding New Guides

1. Open an issue to propose the new guide topic
2. Once approved, create the guide following the template above
3. Add a thumbnail image (PNG, approximately 800x600)
4. Add the guide to the appropriate sidebar in _quarto.yml if it needs a language switcher
5. Submit a pull request

Deployment

The site is automatically built and deployed to GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the main branch. The GitHub Actions workflow:

1. Sets up R and restores renv dependencies
2. Installs Quarto
3. Renders the site
4. Publishes to the gh-pages branch

Questions?

• For technical issues with the site: Open a GitHub issue
• For questions about EGAP: Visit egap.org

License