Template:VaultDisciplineBrief
Assessment panel for pages covering an academic discipline, field of study, or named area of research — as distinct from a specific research organisation or laboratory ({{VaultResearchBrief}}), an investigation team or society ({{VaultOrganisationBrief}}), an individual ({{VaultProfileBrief}}), or a single published work ({{VaultWorkBrief}}).
Use this for pages about the discipline itself — its history, methods, and relationship to other fields — rather than any single institution or study within it. For example: Anomalistic Psychology, or a future page on Cryptozoology or Ufology as fields of study. If a page is really about one specific lab or research programme (e.g. the Rhine Research Center, PEAR), use {{VaultResearchBrief}} instead — this template is for the broader discipline those labs operate within.
Place below the article introduction.
Formatting note: the entire template body is written as one unbroken line, with no line breaks between rows. Splitting rows across multiple lines causes MediaWiki to wrap them in stray <p> tags, breaking the layout; leaving line breaks between rows (even with each row correctly on one line) causes blank fields to leave visible gaps. Keep any future edits to this template on one continuous line.
Usage
{{VaultDisciplineBrief
|parent_field=Psychology
|established=Consolidated as a distinct field from the 1980s–1990s onward; Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit founded 2000
|key_figures=James Alcock; Chris French; Susan Blackmore; Richard Wiseman
|key_works=Alcock, ''Parapsychology: Science or Magic?'' (1981); French & Stone, ''Anomalistic Psychology'' (2014)
|methodology=Applies conventional, already-established psychological explanations (cognitive bias, memory distortion, suggestion, sleep physiology) to reported paranormal experience, without assuming any paranormal cause
|related_fields=Distinct from [[:Category:Parapsychology|parapsychology]], which investigates whether paranormal phenomena are genuinely real rather than asking why people report and believe in them
|academic_status=Mainstream academic discipline
|significance=A neutral summary of why this field matters to the Vault's documented history — e.g. it provides the principal conventional-explanation counterpart to many of the claims documented elsewhere in the archive.
}}
Parameters
- parent_field — the broader academic field this discipline sits within (e.g. Psychology)
- established — when and how the discipline consolidated as a distinct area of study; can include founding figures/institutions
- key_figures — the researchers most associated with founding or advancing the field
- key_works — foundational books, papers, or textbooks
- methodology — the field's general approach or standard methods, in neutral descriptive terms
- related_fields — how this discipline relates to, overlaps with, or is distinguished from other fields the Vault covers (most often used to contrast with parapsychology, since the two are frequently confused)
- academic_status — e.g. Mainstream academic discipline, Fringe discipline, Contested, Emerging field
- significance — a neutral summary of why the discipline is relevant to the Vault specifically. Avoid asserting whether the discipline's own conclusions are correct — describe its role and relevance, not a verdict on it