Watch the MethodSpace Live Webinar: Doing Research Online
This webinar explored qualitative and mixed methods approaches to online research with Drs. Luke Sloan and Janet Salmons. It was offered in conjunction with the MethodSpace May and June 2021 focus on collecting data online.
A little bit of history...
About a million years ago, I connected with a UK-based project that was a collaboration of the NatSen, the National Center for Research Methods, the Oxford Internet Institute, and SAGE Publishing. Blurring the Boundaries: New Social Media, New Social Science. NSMNSS convened a series of working meetings and online events to hash out thorny issues about methods and ethics in a changing digital world of research. Unlike projects that include a narrow collection of people within a particular slice of the research universe, NSMNSS was inclusive and operated from the premise that blurred boundaries, whether national or institutional, disciplinary or methodological, allowed us to understand the issues more fully.
I met Prof. Luke Sloan through NSMNSS. Later, I contributed to a wonderful Handbook of Social Media Research Methods that he co-edited with Anabel Quan-Haase. I am delighted to get together with him in this research conversation! Our work spans a range of online methods, so we will honor the inclusive mission of NSMNSS while we consider present and future issues for online researchers.
Blurring the boundaries?
New social media, new social research: Developing a network to explore the issues faced by researchers negotiating the new research landscape of online social media platforms. Download the 2013 report.
Meet Luke Sloan
Prof. Luke Sloan, Cardiff University
As Director of Learning and Teaching I sit on the School of Social Sciences Senior Management Team and have responsibility for all undergraduate and postgraduate educational provision. I am also the Chair of the University Survey Management Group, which has oversight of all institutional surveys (including NSS, PTES and PRES).
I am Deputy Director of the Social Data Science Lab and my work on understanding who uses Twitter through the development of demographic proxies and data linkage is internationally recognised. I lead the recently funded ESRC project 'Understanding [Online/Offline] Society: Linking Surveys with Twitter Data' (£906,021, ES/S015175/1).
Latest Open-Access Publications:
Sloan, L., Jessop, C., Al Baghal, T. & Williams, M (2020) Linking survey and Twitter data: informed consent, disclosure, security and archiving, Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics 15(1-2), pp. 63-76, 10.1177/1556264619853447
Al Baghal, T., Sloan, L., Jessop, C., Williams, M. & Burnap, P. (2019) Linking Twitter and Survey Data: The Impact of Survey Mode and Demographics on Consent Rates Across Three UK Studies, Social Science Computer Review, https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439319828011
Meet Janet Salmons
Dr. Janet Salmons
As readers know, I am the Methods Guru for MethodSpace, a free-range scholar and artist based in Boulder, Colorado. I am the author of a number of books about online research, online learning, and collaboration. New books include Gather Your Data Online with online course, What Kind of Researcher Are You?, Your Super Quick Guide to Learning Online,Reframing and Rethinking Collaboration in Higher Education and Beyond, and the new second edition of Doing Qualitative Research Online. Some of my books can be accessed on SAGE Research Methods, see the links here.
More Methodspace Posts about Online Research
The wealth of material available online is irresistible to social researchers who are trying to understand contemporary experiences, perspectives, and events. The ethical collection and -use of such material is anything but straightforward. Find open-access articles that explore different approaches.