Online Social Sciences

Ever more researchers in the social sciences and market research are interested in using the benefits of the Internet to obtain data, and as this book shows online studies can address many questions that are asked by social scientists. This unique text provides comprehensive and up-to-date information, from the basics upwards, about online research methods, technical approaches to data collection, and the quality and limitations of data collected online. Included among the twenty-three chapters, written by leading online researchers from Europe and North America, are ones investigating the implementation of both reactive and non-reactive methods of data collection. The studies reported utilize Web-based questionnaires, Web experiments, observations of virtual worlds, case narrations, content analyses, and analysis of mailing-lists and other log data. In addition to featuring various fields of research in the online environment and reporting the results of such studies, this book also seeks to bridge a gap between Internet scientists in Europe and the US. In the past, researchers have tended to work on similar projects without collaboration: this book represents a joint effort among these researchers. Online research from an international perspective: the latest developments and techniques for social scientists and others interested in exploiting the opportunities the Internet provides.