Sebastian Stier

GESIS — Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

Following the shutdown of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) by online platforms, social science research relying on platform data has largely come to a standstill. However, the “post-API” age also presents opportunities for innovation and the development of more robust, quality-assured data collection strategies in computational social science. Researchers are increasingly adopting user-centered data collection approaches, in which participants are recruited and provide informed consent for the collection of longitudinal digital behavioral data in combination with (panel) surveys. The key advantage of such research designs is their ability to capture authentic, in-context user behavior as it naturally unfolds, while also enabling the study of individual-level determinants and consequences of digital behavior with established survey instruments.

While the advantages of user-centered data collections are evident, implementing such research designs poses significant challenges. As with all data linkage approaches, obtaining participant consent and securing actual data transfers may introduce sample biases. Collecting user-centered behavioral data further requires the development and ongoing maintenance of custom research software. Moreover, despite informed consent, important challenges regarding research ethics, data privacy and adherence to open science principles remain.

This talk will introduce GESIS’s service offerings for user-centered digital behavioral data and illustrate their added value through recent research examples. Participants will get to know the GESIS AppKit and GESIS Web Tracking services and how these can be combined with traditional survey methods utilizing the GESIS Panel.dbd Digital Behavioral Data Sample to create richer datasets.

Christof Wolf; Bernhard Miller

GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Saarland University

Sociology is among the disciplines where researchers most frequently report reusing third-party data (Ambrasat et al. 2022), leveraging these for validating their own data, improving models and instruments, and addressing new questions by combining datasets. However, sociology and other social sciences rank low in publicly providing their own data for reuse. Key barriers include the high effort required for documentation and sharing, lack of recognition for these activities, and insufficient infrastructure (Zenk-Möltgen, et al. 2018). Nonetheless, there is broad consensus, especially in analytical sociology, that data reuse is essential for robust evidence and cumulative knowledge growth.

The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is a long-term initiative by the German federal and state governments that consolidates existing services for researchers and creates new ones where needed. Its goal is to simplify research data management—from data access to archiving—and reduce the burden on researchers. For the social sciences, KonsortSWD – NFDI4Society serves as the central hub for research data infrastructure within the NFDI. Building on 39 accredited research data centers, NFDI4Society expands services such as data management plans and training materials, and collaborates with other NFDI areas (e.g., NFDI4Earth) to enhance access to environmental and other data for sociology. Services like Stamp for standardized data management planning, Forum4MICA for expertise on tricky data questions, and the Open Data Format illustrate this approach.

Corinna Kleinert

Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe (LIfBi)

Data offer tremendous potential for advancing social science research, and the global volume of scientifically usable data continues to grow rapidly. The German Data Forum (Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten, RatSWD) plays a pivotal role in making data available for research projects and evidence-based policymaking. Since its foundation in 2004, the RatSWD has improved access to high-quality research data from official, scientific, and private sources.

Two types of data have become particularly important over the past years: health data and firm data. Health data are crucial for monitoring and controlling diseases and disease outbreaks and researching social and economic mechanisms related to health and disease as well as social and economic aspects of healthcare. Firm data are already playing an increasingly important role in the research of many disciplines, however, in Germany the limited access restricts the potential for analysis. The RatSWD intensifies efforts to improve access to these types of data by developing new standards and procedures to ease data linkage, enhance data protection, and foster wider data availability.

This presentation will highlight RatSWD’s initiatives, discuss practical implications for researchers working with complex new data types, and illustrate how these efforts contribute to expanding conventional data infrastructures.

Andrés Saravia¹; Stefan Liebig²

¹WZB Berlin Social Science Center/ Freie Universität Berlin; ²Freie Universität Berlin

Social implications of current and potential crisis phenomena, such as epidemics, natural hazards or armed conflicts are diverse and may heavily challenge modern societies.  In order to react adequately to these challenges, policymakers have to rely on evidence based advises of the social sciences. This in turn can only be provided with quality-tested empirical data.

The project ‘Vulnerability, preparedness and resilience in crises – data infrastructures for the research of social crisis phenomena’, which is part of KonsortSWD – NFDI4Society, aims to improve infrastructures for the research and management of crises and disasters and to strengthen cooperation between science and practice in this area. To achieve this goal, the project has developed an online information platform on data relevant to crises and disasters, has pursued measures to incorporate crisis- and disaster-related content into longitudinal surveys and has organised different events to bring researchers from social sciences and other disciplines such as geography, engineering or medicine as well as practitioners and representatives from ministries and administration together.

The aim of the contribution is to present the project and its current status and to discuss opportunities for cooperation. In particular, the urgency of considering crisis-relevant content in panel studies will be emphasised and joint approaches to implementation will be discussed, shifting empirical social research from an ad hoc push strategy towards a foresighted pull strategy.