Method

What this is

Research Rodger is a first-hour desk. One question. Evidence you saved. Claims, gaps, and who you asked. A pack you download and hold. Originals stay on this device.

What gold means here

Research Rodger is gold as a first-hour investigation desk. One question, saved evidence, claims, gaps, requests, and a fingerprinted pack you hold. Type a name and the desk returns what Companies House printed, plus UK companies connected by officers or PSC. Connected is the register, not the world. Scotland is a switchboard into official doors for every public body we can name, or NOT PRINTED. ALEO is PARTIAL. Sister pots stay on sister sites. You hold the key and the pack. It is not a leak search engine.

GOLD PASS 2 September 2026. Zero FAIL lines on G-A0 to G-A7 as walked on the published desk. This is not a newsroom, not Hunchly, and not finished FOI coverage.

How a first hour works

Write the question in one sentence. If you cannot say it plainly, you are not ready to collect yet.

A first hour is four things: open an investigation, write the question, save one note or one source, export a pack. That is a proper start — not a pile of tabs.

The playbook ticks itself from what you have saved. You cannot tick a step you have not done.

This desk will not say you are ready to publish. Still missing lists holes from what is saved. The investigations list shows that same honest title — a lead, still holes, or not a first hour yet.

Every source has a card

Each saved piece shows its title, kind, a web address or “on this device”, who published it (or that this was not named), when it was saved, and a fingerprint.

A failed capture is a failed capture. It is not a source. If the first try dies, this desk tries once more. It still will not jump a login or a paywall, and it will not run JavaScript.

One independent source on a claim is a lead. An archive of the same page, a later copy of it, or a note is not a second source. A claim cannot stand with no independent source, and it cannot stand with only one.

The one-page report

The report is assembled from the saved question, the claims and whether they stand, the open gaps, and who you asked. You cannot type extra facts onto that page.

Export a pack and that page is inside it as a reading copy. The saved objects are the investigation. If the page and the objects disagree, the objects win.

Public records

Public records live on their own sites. This desk opens Companies House, WhatDoTheyKnow, parliament, the Gazette, gov.scot, the courts, and ScotLIS. A Scottish charity card reads the official OSCR page when you ask, and it will not invent a number. A hit is not a source until you save the page here.

Scottish charities sit on OSCR. England and Wales is a different register. A sister desk is not this casefile.

On your phone

On the published site you can add this desk to the home screen. Offline, the last case list this device saved can still open. Lookup, Archive.org, and saving a live page will not work until you are back on the network.

Originals stay in this browser on this device through a refresh. They are not in the pack. Download them before you lose the phone.

What this desk will not do

This desk will not invent a source, a quote, a date, or a company. Missing on the register is not the same as none in the world.

An Archive.org copy of the same page is a safety net, not a second independent source.

A fingerprint is a check that the saved words have not changed. It is not a court stamp.

This desk is not a leak search engine. It will not OCR a dump of thousands of PDFs. If a dump arrives, put the originals folder and the pack on a computer and open them in ICIJ Datashare. The question still lives here. The pile lives there.

What the pack holds

The pack is a JSON file you download. It holds the investigation name, the question, the checklist, notes, captured page text, words taken from files where those could be read, fingerprints, source checks, confirmed names, gaps, claims, requests, the log, and a one-page report assembled from those objects.

Original photos, original PDFs, and the raw page this desk received are not in the pack. They stay on the device that saved them. Download those originals before you lose the phone.

Import the pack on another browser to restore the investigation — not the original photos.

Look up a name

Buttons open Companies House, OSCR, WhatDoTheyKnow, OpenSanctions, CSS Government, My street, and Asylum in Scotland. Those buttons do not copy the other site into this investigation. A Scottish charity number reads the official OSCR page when you press the button.

A sister desk is not this casefile. Lookup on this desk talks to Companies House when you hold a key, and opens OSCR for a Scottish charity number. That is the register that belongs to that kind of thing, not the other pots.

Lookup

Lookup talks to the UK Companies House register when you hold a key on this device. Search companies, or search officers. Officers is not a people database and not the electoral roll. Same name is not proof it is the same person. You pick a candidate. Connected companies are what that register printed on this hop — shared officers or a corporate person with significant control. That is not the worldwide group.

Without a key, Lookup opens the official Companies House page and will not fake a card.

Charities (OSCR) is a separate search on Lookup. A Scottish charity number starts with SC0. Press the button, or open a link that already has the number, and this desk reads the official OSCR page. It will not invent a charity number. A Companies House number is a different register. Same body on both is not two independent sources. England and Wales sits on the Charity Commission.

Ask

Ask how-to answers from this method. It does not read the web.

Ask the investigation reads up to 20 pieces you have saved, and only if you press the button. It must not invent. If a fact is not saved here, the answer is that it is not in this investigation.

Read this paper, Draft this ask, and Story pass send only the text already on the page, and only when you press them. Compare this name does not leave this device. Research these four titles reads Record, People, Money and Graph on the charity already open. It does not add a person or a hop. Proofread this stays on this device and does not rewrite a draft. A field recording is sent to be written down only when you press Record. You still edit it. A reading is not a source.

For builders

GOLD PASS 2 September 2026. Zero FAIL lines on G-A0 to G-A7 as walked on the published desk. This is not a newsroom, not Hunchly, and not finished FOI coverage.