# Synthesis: Governance Reform Timing Under Accreditation Pressure

## Section 3.1 — Temporal Clustering of Governance Reforms

Research on institutional behaviour under external quality assurance pressure
suggests that governance reforms may cluster in the period leading up to formal
review. Pending verification of Smith and Lee (2024), upstream bibliography
annotation (inferred from a publisher abstract, not the retrieved source)
indicates a possible 18-month pre-review clustering pattern. This claim should
be treated as provisional until the full text is retrieved and confirmed.

## Section 3.2 — Implications for Longitudinal Study Design

If the 18-month pre-review clustering pattern is confirmed by Smith and Lee
(2024), longitudinal designs that sample at fixed calendar intervals may
systematically over-sample or under-sample reform activity depending on their
alignment with the review calendar. Final design recommendations will be updated
once the source verification is complete.
