The Future of Quantitative Research in Social Science

Our goal is to think through how to use new forms of organic data, e.g. social media data, to help answer questions social scientists care about. Our approach is to integrate the expertise of social scientists, computer scientists, and data scientists to create and adapt computer science algorithms and data mining methods in ways that adhere to the design structures, measurement rigor and ethical protections of social science. 

Methodology

Our methodology integrates relevant components of existing social science methodologies with components of the knowledge discovery process to enhance research that uses organic data.

Meetings

We are hosting a series of meetings where we will debate and develop guidelines for leveraging social media data to answer questions of interest to social science.

Community

We are creating an interdisciplinary community of scholars interested in leveraging social media data to answer questions about human beliefs, human behavior, and the society they live in.

Exemplars

We are testing and refining the methodology and guidelines on five different research exemplars that span multiple SBE (Social, Behavioral, and Economic) disciplines.