Methods

Our methodological focus combines qualitative and quantitative, computer-assisted methods and software to make the most of “new” types of data, especially social media data, while also providing a new approach to more traditional textual data, including laws, speeches and policy documents.

In so doing, we seek to demonstrate the empirical breadth for which such methods are useful while also identifying and addressing the challenges which they face.

Primary methods

• Social network analysis
• Qualitative content analysis
• Quantitative text analysis
• Statistical procedures

Methodological innovation

In our research, we are developing and optimizing

• new measures to analyze the structure and dynamics of large networks;
• visual analysis methods for network data that communicate complex relationships quickly and easily;
• approximation algorithms for network metrics to estimate timeliness and fidelity; and
• new approaches for tackling multi-layer bias problems in social media data.