“ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
discussed and the codes refined with input from Dr. Zenilman. Once the 
preliminary coding and revisions were complete, double coding began, with 
two coders working on the laboratory notebooks and two on the clinical 
notebooks (the coders working on the clinical notebooks had moderate to 
high Spanish fluency). Each pair of coders worked through a number of pages 
of their notebook independently, then met to reconcile their coding. One 
member of each team maintained the master database with reconciled data. 
The coding scheme was revised iteratively, as new information was encoun- 
tered that was not being adequately captured. When the coding scheme was 
revised, previously coded data were recoded to reflect the revised scheme. 
The rules employed during coding included: 
- Use one line for each entry about each person per date. Simple direct Spanish 
translation permitted (e.g., “orinas” in the data source became “urines” in the 
database) 
- Long or complex Spanish translations should be preceded in the database by 
‘[Translation]’ 
■ Where handwriting cannot be interpreted, denote as ‘[illegible]’ 
■ Where handwriting is difficult to interpret, use brackets [] to denote coder’s 
interpretation of entry 
■ Coding test results 
■ N (any variation) = negative 
■ P (any variation) = positive 
■ D (any variation) = doubtful 
■ WP = weakly positive 
■ QNS = quantity not sufficient 
■ If there is a N, D, or WP and a P on the same line, code as “conflicting” 
■ If there is a N and a D on the same line code as “negative” 
A detailed data interpretation and coding key is available upon request. 
Additional Cutler Documents 
Additional Cutler Documents included Dr. Cutler’s final research reports, 
photographs, correspondence, individual experiment files, and about a dozen 
miscellaneous documents. 706 There were also approximately 7,000 research 
subject note cards. Overall, the content of these data sources was much less 
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