The open knowledge base behind the Research Rundown newsletter.
Curated reports, tools, and companion materials for development researchers and practitioners.
Development research moves fast. Critical reports from WHO, FAO, IPCC, and ODI are published constantly, but they're scattered across dozens of institutional websites with no single place to find, compare, or contextualise them.
SignalStack bridges that gap. Each quarter, the Research Rundown newsletter curates the most important new research — and this repository archives it all with summaries, source links, companion materials, and study resources that outlive any single newsletter issue.
This is the knowledge curation layer of OpenStacks for Change — an open ecosystem of tools for public interest research and evaluation.
Browse the content:
- Newsletter Issues — Archived issues with summaries and key takeaways
- Featured Tools — Curated research tools and methods
- Book Companions — Study aids and concept guides
- Extended Notes — Deep-dive source links and follow-up reading
- Full Documentation — How the project works, how to contribute, and what's planned
Subscribe for updates: Research Rundown on Substack
Each issue is archived here with full summaries and key takeaways — not just links to Substack.
| Issue | Date | Themes | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issue 2 | Apr 2025 | Climate, Gender, Governance, Health | Gender-responsive climate resilience, WHO equity toolkit, BRICS+ governance shifts, visualising uncertainty |
| Issue 1 | Jun 2024 | Food, Climate, Gender, Methods, Open Science | SOFI global hunger report, IPCC synthesis, ocean gender equity, decolonising research, OpenAlex |
| Resource | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AI Tools for Excel | Tool Guide | Using Copilot, ChatGPT, and AI assistants to supercharge Excel workflows for researchers |
| 101 Data Science Drawings | Book Companion | Key concepts, applications, visual walkthroughs, and study resources for Raymond Lim's visual data science guide |
| THR June Notes | Extended Notes | Source links and follow-up resources for gender-responsive climate resilience, health equity, BRICS+, and more |
SignalStack is one of several open repositories in the OpenStacks ecosystem. Each stack serves a different purpose — SignalStack curates and highlights tools from the others.
OpenStacks for Change
________________________________
| |
SignalStack ---+--- InsightStack --- FieldStack |
(you are here) | | | |
| EquityStack --------' |
|________________________________|
| Stack | What It Does | Language |
|---|---|---|
| InsightStack | MEL tools, sample size calculators, documentation templates | JavaScript |
| FieldStack | R notebooks for fieldwork, surveys, and evaluation analysis | R |
| EquityStack | Python workflows for econometrics, causal inference, and development data | Python |
| SignalStack (this repo) | Research curation, newsletter archive, book companions | Markdown |
SignalStack/
├── issues/ # Newsletter issue archives (with full summaries)
│ ├── april-2025/ # Issue 2: Climate, gender, governance, health
│ └── june-2024/ # Issue 1: Food security, climate, open science
├── featured/ # Featured research tools and methods
├── extras/
│ ├── books/ # Book companion materials
│ │ └── 101_data_drawings_extras/ # Concepts, applications, walkthroughs
│ └── issue notes/ # Extended newsletter references and source links
├── docs/ # Project documentation (GitBook-style)
│ ├── README.md # Documentation home
│ ├── getting-started.md # Setup and orientation
│ ├── content-guide.md # How to read and use this repo
│ ├── architecture.md # How the project is structured
│ └── roadmap.md # What's planned next
├── assets/banner/ # Visual assets
├── .github/ # CI/CD, issue templates, security policy
├── CONTRIBUTING.md # How to contribute
├── CHANGELOG.md # Auto-generated from commits
└── CITATION.cff # How to cite this project
We welcome contributions — whether it's fixing a broken link, suggesting a resource, or adding content. See the Contributing Guide for commit conventions, setup instructions, and PR guidelines.
If you reference this collection in academic or professional work:
@misc{signalstack,
author = {Sri Raman, Varna},
title = {SignalStack: Research Rundown Newsletter Archive and Curated Development Resources},
year = {2024},
url = {https://github.com/Varnasr/SignalStack},
license = {MIT}
}MIT — free to use, modify, and share. See LICENSE.
Created by Varna Sri Raman — Development Economist & Social Researcher
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