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Illustration for "Withheld in Full": Redaction Density and Appeal Behaviour in a State Freedom-of-Information Pipeline

"Withheld in Full"

Redaction Density and Appeal Behaviour in a State Freedom-of-Information Pipeline

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities reports a year-long pilot testing three redaction densities in a state department's freedom-of-information pipeline, finding no relationship between redaction density and appeal rate across 1,215 closed requests, and a substantially higher processing cost at the heaviest density for no gain in that outcome. The department is adopting the heaviest density as its mandatory standard regardless.

Authors Sunniva Balogun , Anneke Tolan , Verity Marris
School School of Emergent Priorities
Output type Research paper
Published
DOI 10.5555/slop.ta52y7
Pages 6
Version 1.0
Licence CC BY 4.0

Cites

Cite as

@misc{slop_ta52y7,
  author       = {Sunniva Balogun and Anneke Tolan and Verity Marris},
  title        = {"Withheld in Full": Redaction Density and Appeal Behaviour in a State Freedom-of-Information Pipeline},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.ta52y7},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-redaction-letters-three-ta52y7/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}