Although Indigenous scholars have been documenting Indigenous research methodologies, little has been written on the practical considerations of doing research across Indigenous/Settler contexts. Read these open access articles as part of the Indigenous & Intercultural Research focus this month.

Julie Reeder discusses research roles and skills needed for work in a government setting.

Doctoral students who are also working professionals design research "on the job."

In this interview with Dr. Virginia Yonkers we explore research options for non-tenure track faculty members.

Coming from a social science background, I have had very limited exposure to data science. I was therefore excited to learn about the emerging field of computational social science and the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS) presented the right opportunity. I applied to the 2019 SICSS and I was accepted for the Cape Town partner site. I went in not knowing what to expect but by the end of the first day I knew the experience at the two-week Summer Institute was going to be truly worthwhile.

This summer we've had the pleasure of welcoming four Masters students from UK universities to work with the SAGE Ocean team. All four students have been quite incredible, and have managed to produce a variety of outputs and substantially contribute to our work. In this blog post, they share testimonials of their time in the team.

Academics face various pressures, from research teaching and administrative duties. The best way to create a positive culture in academia is to share. However, it may sometimes feel like there is no incentive to share teaching materials, if I have spent so many hours developing this work, why should I just hand it over to someone, “what’s in it for me?”

SAGE Campus are pleased to announce that we are launching two new courses to our suite of online data science courses for social scientists. The new short courses, Research Design in Social Data Science and Collecting Social Media Data, are aimed at those studying, teaching or working in social science disciplines who are looking to take their first steps toward working with big-data driven approaches to social science research.

I would argue that computational social science necessitates collaboration, and indeed is tamed by it. A collaborative approach provides the necessary structure, goals, and a critical approach to research methods. In response to the question of what computational social science has helped me achieve, it may seem obvious to mention the concrete projects, the outputs, the measurable outcomes. However, for me computational social science has achieved something more substantial and enduring—a new way of working, a new way of thinking, and a new kind of enthusiasm for research.

It’s an exciting time to be in social science. Social media, digital identities and the world of big data has opened up new ways for social scientists to study and examine social phenomenon.

Some examples include using online search patterns to predict the spread of disease, tracking near real-time Twitter data to understand political movements or using location data to understand interpersonal interactions.

The move to a digital world has created a innovative new area of social science called computational social science (CSS).

Being a data scientist with a sociological background is extremely valuable in trying to answer research questions to advance contemporary humanity. It goes beyond programming skills or just applying algorithms to data.