ORIGINAL COMPANY-CONTEXT PRACTICE
Retrieve the correct version of a research protocol
Original practice scenario: A hypothetical pharmaceutical research assistant answers questions from reviewed protocol documents. Old versions and amendments are both indexed. Design retrieval and evaluation.
Written for independent practice using company context; this is not a verified question from a company interview.
A REASONED APPROACH
Model answer.
Make document authority and version applicability part of retrieval. A fluent answer supported by an obsolete protocol can be more misleading than a clearly unanswered question.
Work through it
- Identify protocol versions, effective intervals and amendment relationships, applying the user's authorized study and date context before selecting passages.
- Keep necessary conditions and exceptions with each passage, then require answers to cite the specific retrieved version and abstain when applicable evidence is missing.
- Evaluate version-sensitive questions, superseded instructions and conflicting amendments, separating retrieval success from factual support and human-reviewed usability.
Tradeoffs to discuss
- Restricting to one current version simplifies ordinary use but may prevent legitimate historical analysis; explicit as-of queries support both.
Common pitfalls
- Do not infer that the newest upload is automatically the effective protocol.
- A citation identifier proves neither that the user may access the document nor that the answer follows its meaning.