Adopting common definitions across the field of recording could be challenging for key pieces of information, but standardising definitions could improve the practice for recorders and make the information more helpful to those who use such data.
This is especially true where there are no universal definitions, or the limitations of the sources that recorders use would prevent them from conforming to such definitions. Even if status is divided up into the agreed categories of ‘civilian’ and ‘combatant’, these cannot be applied in the same way by all recorders. Working towards standardisation in definitions and categories could serve the aims of: building a more unified and recognised field; helping certain users of casualty information to use the work of recorders more; giving new recorders a useful and robust framework or template for starting their work.
Definition and Categorisation, pp. 34-35
