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Power Lens Bangladesh

Data Methodology

How we collect, clean, match, publish and correct the data behind our databases and stories.

Our databases are only as reliable as their sources and methods. This page describes both in more detail than our methodology.

Where our data comes from

  • Official records: gazettes, procurement portals, election results, parliamentary records, asset declarations and court records.
  • Right to Information responses.
  • Public datasets from government bodies and international organisations.
  • Data we collect ourselves, for example through surveys or by extracting information from documents.

We archive the original of every source with its origin and the date we collected it, so that the record can be checked even if the original is later changed or removed.

How we prepare it

  1. Clean. We standardise names, dates, currencies and units. We record every change.
  2. Match. We link people, companies, contracts and institutions using written rules. We record how sure we are of each match: confirmed by a document, probable, or possible. A possible match is never published as fact.
  3. Analyse. We keep the code or the steps we used, so that the analysis can be repeated.
  4. Review. A second person checks the data and the analysis before anything is published.

What every dataset shows

Each dataset carries notes on its sources, the date collected, what it covers, what it does not cover, known gaps and errors, and when it was last updated. We keep a change log so that users can see what has changed and why.

People in our databases

Our databases focus on public officials, public bodies and public money, and on the roles and decisions that are of public interest. We keep information about private individuals to the minimum needed, and we do not publish it unless there is a clear public interest. Every entry follows the labels in our methodology: verified fact, allegation, court finding and claim. See also our privacy policy.

Open data

We share our data openly wherever the law and safety allow. [TO ADD: licence and download format, for example "Data is published under a Creative Commons licence in CSV"]

Errors and corrections

If you find an error, contact us. We check every report, correct confirmed errors, and note the change in the dataset's change log. See our corrections policy.