diff --git a/Snakefile b/Snakefile
index 71a8a6ed..4e00a7c1 100644
--- a/Snakefile
+++ b/Snakefile
@@ -102,6 +102,9 @@ def make_final_input(wildcards):
         final_input.extend(expand('{out_dir}{sep}{dataset}-ml{sep}{algorithm}-hac-clusters-horizontal.txt',out_dir=out_dir,sep=SEP,dataset=dataset_labels,algorithm=algorithms_mult_param_combos,algorithm_params=algorithms_with_params))
         final_input.extend(expand('{out_dir}{sep}{dataset}-ml{sep}{algorithm}-ensemble-pathway.txt',out_dir=out_dir,sep=SEP,dataset=dataset_labels,algorithm=algorithms_mult_param_combos,algorithm_params=algorithms_with_params))
 
+    # if _config.config.evaluation_include:
+    #     final_input.extend(expand('{out_dir}{sep}{dataset}-{goldstandard}.txt',out_dir=out_dir,sep=SEP,dataset=dataset_labels,algorithm=algorithms_mult_param_combos,algorithm_params=algorithms_with_params))
+    
     if len(final_input) == 0:
         # No analysis added yet, so add reconstruction output files if they exist.
         # (if analysis is specified, these should be implicitly run).
@@ -153,6 +156,10 @@ rule merge_input:
         dataset_dict = get_dataset(_config.config.datasets, wildcards.dataset)
         runner.merge_input(dataset_dict, output.dataset_file)
 
+# TODO: add a merge input for gold standard data?
+# may need to update runner.py to add a merge_gs_input function
+
+
 # The checkpoint is like a rule but can be used in dynamic workflows
 # The workflow directed acyclic graph is re-evaluated after the checkpoint job runs
 # If the checkpoint has not executed for the provided wildcard values, it will be run and then the rest of the
diff --git a/config/config.yaml b/config/config.yaml
index 741d8ca9..bcff35f2 100644
--- a/config/config.yaml
+++ b/config/config.yaml
@@ -115,6 +115,13 @@ datasets:
       other_files: []
       # Relative path from the spras directory
       data_dir: "input"
+    
+gold_standard:
+    -
+      label: gs
+      node_files: ["gs_nodes.txt"]
+      # edge_files: [] TODO: later iteration
+      data_dir: "input"
 
 # If we want to reconstruct then we should set run to true.
 # TODO: if include is true above but run is false here, algs are not run.
@@ -156,3 +163,5 @@ analysis:
         linkage: 'ward'
         # 'euclidean', 'manhattan', 'cosine'
         metric: 'euclidean'
+      evaluation:
+        include: true
diff --git a/spras/evaluation.py b/spras/evaluation.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e3df89fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spras/evaluation.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+import os
+import pickle as pkl
+import warnings
+
+import pandas as pd
+
+class Evaluation:
+   
+    def __init__(self, gold_standard_dict):
+        self.label = None
+        self.node_table = None
+        # self.edge_table = None TODO: later iteration
+        self.load_files_from_dict(gold_standard_dict)
+        return
+    
+    def to_file(self, file_name):
+        """
+        Saves dataset object to pickle file
+        """
+        with open(file_name, "wb") as f:
+            pkl.dump(self, f)
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_file(cls, file_name):
+        """
+        Loads dataset object from a pickle file.
+        Usage: dataset = Dataset.from_file(pickle_file)
+        """
+        with open(file_name, "rb") as f:
+            return pkl.load(f)
+
+    def load_files_from_dict(self, gold_standard_dict):
+         
+        self.label = gold_standard_dict["label"]
+        node_data_files = gold_standard_dict["node_files"]
+        data_loc = gold_standard_dict["data_dir"]
+
+        single_node_table = pd.read_table(os.path.join(data_loc, node_file))
+        self.node_table = single_node_table
+
+        # self.node_table = pd.DataFrame(node_set, columns=[self.NODE_ID])
+        # for loop? and read in node dataset into a pandas df
+
+def percision_recall():
+    None
+    # https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.average_precision_score.html