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Upload Cases

This guide covers adding ethics cases to ProEthica for analysis.

Import Methods

ProEthica provides three methods for adding cases:

Add New Case interface

Method Description
Enter URL Import from NSPE website URLs
Upload Document PDF, DOCX, TXT file upload
Create Manually Manual entry of case details

Currently, the Enter URL method is the primary way to add cases, optimized for importing NSPE Board of Ethical Review cases directly from the NSPE website.

Case Structure

ProEthica processes ethics cases with structured sections. The expected format includes:

Section Purpose
Title Case identifier and subject
Facts Narrative description of the situation
Discussion Board's ethical analysis and reasoning
Questions Specific ethical questions addressed
Conclusions Board's determinations

Importing via URL

The URL import method fetches case content directly from the NSPE website.

Step 1: Navigate to Add Case

  1. Click Cases in the navigation bar
  2. Click Add Case button
  3. Select Enter URL (the active green option)

Step 2: Enter NSPE Case URL

Provide the URL to an NSPE Board of Ethical Review case:

https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/ethics-resources/board-ethical-review-cases/case-XX-X

The system will:

  1. Fetch the page content
  2. Extract the case title
  3. Parse Facts, Discussion, Questions, and Conclusions sections
  4. Create the case record

Step 3: Review Imported Content

After import, verify:

  • Title extracted correctly
  • All sections identified
  • Content complete

Step 4: Generate Structure

Click Structure on the case detail page to:

  • View parsed sections
  • Generate embeddings for similarity matching
  • Verify section boundaries

Generating Embeddings

After upload, generate embeddings for similarity matching:

Step 1: Access Structure View

From the case detail page, click Structure.

Step 2: Generate Embeddings

Click Generate Embeddings to create vector representations:

  • Facts embedding (384 dimensions)
  • Discussion embedding (384 dimensions)

Step 3: Verify Generation

The Structure view shows embedding status:

Status Meaning
Generated Embeddings available
Pending Generation not started
Error Generation failed

Case Sources

ProEthica supports cases from various sources:

NSPE Board of Ethical Review

The National Society of Professional Engineers publishes Board of Ethical Review (BER) cases with standardized format including facts, questions, and conclusions.

Access: NSPE Ethics Resources

Other Engineering Boards

Similar cases from state licensing boards and professional organizations follow comparable formats.

Custom Scenarios

User-created scenarios for analysis should follow the Facts/Discussion structure even if not from official board proceedings.

Batch Upload

For multiple cases, use the Pipeline Dashboard (requires admin login):

  1. Navigate to Tools > Pipeline Dashboard
  2. Use Queue tab for batch operations
  3. Upload cases through batch interface

Case Metadata

Each case stores:

Field Type Description
id Integer Database identifier
title Text Case title
content Text Full case text
source Text Case origin
doc_metadata JSON Section structure
created_at Timestamp Upload time

Preparing Case Text

For best extraction results:

Format Guidelines

  • Preserve original paragraph structure
  • Include all sections (Facts, Discussion, Questions, Conclusions)
  • Remove headers/footers from PDFs
  • Clean up OCR artifacts if present

Section Markers

ProEthica recognizes section headers like:

  • "Facts:" or "FACTS"
  • "Discussion:" or "DISCUSSION"
  • "Questions:" or "QUESTIONS"
  • "Conclusions:" or "CONCLUSIONS"

Code References

Include code of ethics citations as they appear:

  • "NSPE Code II.1.a"
  • "Code Section 2"
  • "Canon 4"

Troubleshooting

Section Detection Failed

If sections aren't detected:

  1. Check for standard section headers
  2. Edit case to add explicit headers
  3. Use Structure view to manually set sections

Embedding Generation Slow

Embedding generation depends on:

  • Case length (longer cases take more time)
  • Server load
  • Model availability

Allow up to 30 seconds for typical cases.

Duplicate Case

The system allows duplicate uploads. Check existing cases before adding:

  1. Use Cases search
  2. Check Precedents page for similar titles