Rules lie at the core of many disciplines beneath regulatory studies. Such a broad interest inevitably comes with fragmented understandings and technical choices that hinder knowledge cumulation and learning. This introduction tackles these limitations through an encompassing analytical blueprint from measurement theory. First, it addresses ambiguities to establish formal rules as a distinct research object. Then, it builds on legal, institutional analytic, and computational linguistic frameworks to pinpoint their constituting elements. Last, it revises strategies for assigning meaningful numbers to objects and outlines how the contributions to this Special Issue foster different aspects of the blueprint.

中文翻译：

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 规则即数据


规则是监管研究许多学科的核心。如此广泛的兴趣不可避免地伴随着碎片化的理解和技术选择，阻碍了知识的积累和学习。本介绍通过测量理论的全面分析蓝图解决了这些局限性。首先，它解决了建立正式规则作为独特研究对象的模糊性。然后，它建立在法律、制度分析和计算语言框架的基础上，以确定其构成要素。最后，它修改了为对象分配有意义的数字的策略，并概述了对本期特刊的贡献如何促进蓝图的不同方面。