Workshop on Standards and Practices in Large-Scale Social Media Research
26 May, 2015 – Oxford, UK
Held in Conjunction with ICWSM 2015
Overview
A number of recent papers have raised concerns about methodological practices in large-scale studies of social behavior, particularly those using social media data. Unaddressed, such concerns could call into question much work being done by the research community. The goal of this workshop is to encourage constructive and informed debate on these topics with the goal of producing a body of peer-reviewed work and a working paper of methodological recommendations for the community.
Specifically, this workshop will consider methodological issues that may threaten the validity, reproducibility, and generalizability of large-scale social media research studies. This year’s workshop will bring together papers and discussions on a range of topics including:- Constraints on and opportunities for data sharing
- Publication practices (e.g., paper length limits, standards about supplementary materials)
- Standards for statistical analysis
- Quantifying and accounting for platform specific biases (platform design, user base, platform-specific behavior, platform storage policies)
- Code sharing/publications practices
The workshop will include a host of events including invited reports on particular topics, accepted paper presentations, posters, and brainstorming/discussion sessions.
A crucial outcome of the workshop will be a set of recommendations to the broader ICWSM community on the topics covered during the workshop.Important Dates
- March 20, 2015 – Paper and poster submission deadline
- March 25, 2015 – Paper decisions announced
- May 26, 2015 – Workshop date
Organizers
- Derek Ruths (McGill University)
- Juergen Pfeffer (Carnegie Mellon University)
Program Committee
- Michael Corey (Facebook)
- Muhammad Imran (QCRI)
- David Lazer (Northeastern University)
- Huan Liu (Arizona State University)
- Katja Mayer (University of Vienna)
- Takis Metaxas (Wellesley College)
- Markus Strohmair (University of Koblenz)
Event Format
The workshop will be organized into a sequence of sessions – each of which will be focused on a particular topic of the overall workshop theme. The goal of a session will be to review existing conventions, hear novel approaches to solving the problem, and then brainstorm/discuss as a group (hopefully organically reaching some level of consensus). The specific topics that will be covered will be governed largely by the paper submissions received (indicating the specific interests of the community).
Towards the end of the event, all participants in the workshop will be invited to participate in an anonymous poll in which participants will vote for favored recommendations to the community. The numerical scores and qualitative comments from this survey will be combined with the results of the brainstorming sessions to produce a set of recommendations that will be published to the broader ICWSM research community (and beyond).Call for Papers
A number of recent papers have raised concerns about methodological practices in large-scale studies of social behavior, particularly those using social media data. Unaddressed, such concerns could call into question much work being done by the research community. The goal of this workshop is to encourage constructive and informed debate on these topics with the goal of producing a body of peer-reviewed work and a working paper of methodological recommendations for the community.
Specifically, this workshop will consider methodological issues that may threaten the validity, reproducibility, and generalizability of large-scale social media research studies. Submissions are invited on a range of topics including:- Constraints on and opportunities for data sharing
- Publication practices (e.g., paper length limits, standards about supplementary materials)
- Standards for statistical analysis
- Quantifying and accounting for platform specific biases (platform design, user base, platform-specific behavior, platform storage policies)
- Code sharing/publications practices
The organizers hope to engage a broad group of researchers to nucleate a discussion on these topics. Papers should be original, but can take the form of mini-survey papers or position papers.
We aim to make this workshop hands on, with breakout sessions to delve into specific research questions and agendas.Accepted papers will be included in the ICWSM 2015 proceedings.Submission Instructions
Papers are limited to 10 pages and must be formatted in accordance with the main ICWSM conference’s guidelines.
Submissions will be made through EasyChair.