Top-Down e-Infrastructure Meets Bottom-Up Research Innovation

Fitting e-Social Science Visions to the Realities Eric Meyer & William Dutton

Oxford e-Social Science Node

of UK National Centre for eSocial Science

Presentation for the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, 8-11 Sept 2008. Paper associated with this presentation available: Meyer, Eric T. and Dutton, William H., “Top-Down e-Infrastructure Meets Bottom-Up Research Innovation: Fitting e-Social Science Visions to the Realities " (Sept 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1262211

Certainty Trough or Experience Technology

Evidence for Uncertainty Trough

Opponents Disengaged Spectators Promoters

7.6 9.9 43.2 33.3

Certain 40.5 8.7 19.7 68.1 37.9

Marginal 27.0 30.4 33.7 23.5 29.1

Uncertain 32.4 60.9 46.6 8.4 33.0

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Uncertainty by Perspective (**)

Perspective

Total

Uncertainty

Total

Proportion of sample

Source: Dutton, W.H. & Meyer, E.T. (2008). “e-Social Science as an Experience Technology: Distance from, and Attitudes Toward, E-Research“. Presentation for the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, University of Manchester, 19 June 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1150422

Evidence for an Experience Technology

Disengaged Opponents Spectators Promoters

Low 71.7 62.2 43.8 6.5 34.4

Moderate 23.9 27.0 38.9 28.0 32.5

High 4.3 10.8 17.3 65.5 33.1

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Support

Total

Support by Perspective (**)

Perspective

Total

Source: Dutton, W.H. & Meyer, E.T. (2008). “e-Social Science as an Experience Technology: Distance from, and Attitudes Toward, E-Research“. Presentation for the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, University of Manchester, 19 June 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1150422

Sample

Source N Sent N RespondedResponse

Rate% of

sample

NCeSS List 615 141 22.9% 26.8%OII List 1761 180 10.2% 34.2%Open mailings n/a 205 n/a 39.0%Total 526 100.0%

Sample Characteristics

Bias of the Sample

Bias of the Sample

Year of Degree (%)

9.3 10.312.7

24.9

42.8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Before 1970 Between 1971 and1980

Between 1981 and1990

Between 1991 and2000

After 2001

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Bias of the Sample

Country (%)

46.8

14.1

17.7

4.61.9

15.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

United Kingdom North America Europe Australia andNew Zealand

East Asia Global South

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Bias of the Sample

How would you describe your interest in e-Social Science initiatives? (%)

29.726.8

30.4

6.8 6.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Very interested Interested Somewhat interested Not interested at all Don't Know / Don'tAnswer

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Type of Research

Type of Research (%)

14.8%

42.4%

29.8%

12.9%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Quantitative Some mix of both Qualitative Other/None

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Mean 3.9s.d. 2.3Mode 4Range 0-12

Number of methods indicated

Research methods used, and interest in e-Research (n=526)

57% 56%55%

33%

25%

21%19% 18%

16%14%

3%

12%

59%58%

62%

59%

64%62% 62%

60% 60%

56%

73%

53%

62%

56%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Qualita

tive

Inte

rview

s

Desk r

esea

rch

Case

study

Surve

ys

Partic

ipant

Obs

erva

tion

Ethno

grap

hy

Histor

ical

Simula

tion

Exper

imen

ts

Form

al m

odell

ing

Web

met

rics

Clinica

l

Other

Research Methods

Pe

rcen

tag

e o

f re

sear

ch

ers

rep

ort

ing

usi

ng

res

ear

ch m

eth

od

Research methods used

Strong Interest in e-Research

Use of Data Sets

Mean overall research software tools used, based on use of tools in a given category of research software (n=526)

8.67

8.21 8.187.93 7.93 7.84

7.67

6.32

5.53

5.09

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00

Webmetrics Geographic Visualizing Simulation ContentAnalysis

Integrating VideoAnalysis

Database Quantitative Qualitative

Software tool category

Mea

n

Researcher Clusters

Lone e-Researcher Team Player Qual Quant

User of research methods 0.47 0.34 0.74 0.18Both a user and developer 0.45 0.66 0.22 0.55Methodologist, developing methods 0.08 0.00 0.03 0.27

Quantitative 0.19 0.07 0.09 0.57Mix of quant and qual 0.66 0.86 0.18 0.04Qualitative 0.15 0.07 0.72 0.39

Never or rarely code apps 0.00 0.83 1.00 0.05Often or always code apps 1.00 0.17 0.00 0.95

Sole investigator on all or most projects 0.45 0.06 0.53 0.00Sole investigator on half of projects 0.42 0.07 0.23 0.00One of a team on most or all projects 0.13 0.87 0.23 1.00

Cluster

Clusters (%)

23.0

26.229.1

12.09.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Lone e-Researcher Team Player Quals Quants Don't Know / Don'tAnswer

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Types of Researchers

Clusters of types of researchers by research software tool use (n=526)

3.1

4.4

1.9

3.7

4.4

0.78

0.84

0.60

0.70

0.66

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

Lone e-Researchers(25.4%)

Team Players(29.0%)

Quals(32.3%)

Quants(13.3%)

Overall Sample

Clusters of Types of Researchers

Mea

n n

um

ber

of

too

ls u

sed

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

Lik

elih

oo

d o

f u

sin

g a

ny

soft

war

e to

ols

fo

r re

sear

ch

Number of tools Any tools

***

**

**

*

***

**

Types of Researchers

Perspective (%)

33.3

43.2

7.69.9

6.1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Promoters Observers Opponents Disengaged Don't Know / Don'tAnswer

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Clusters of researcher perspectives by research software tool use (n=526)

3.1

1.8

2.82.7

4.4

0.77

0.66 0.65

0.60

0.66

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

Promoters(35.1%)

Observers(46.1%)

Opponents(8.1%)

Disengaged(10.6%)

Overall Sample

Clusters of Types of Researchers

Mea

n n

um

be

r o

f to

ols

us

ed

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

Lik

elih

oo

d o

f u

sin

g a

ny

so

ftw

are

to

ols

fo

r re

se

arc

h

Number of tools Any tools

***

***

***

Oxford e-Social Science (OeSS) Node of NCeSS

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Eric T. MeyerResearch Fellow

eric.meyer@oii.ox.ac.ukhttp://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/meyer

Willam H. DuttonProfessor and Director, OII

director@oii.ox.ac.uk http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/dutton

Oxford e-Social Science Project