Princeton professor Matthew Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit, explores the merging worlds of computer science and social science for timely, policy relevant research in the 21st century. In the book, he shows how traditional research techniques in the social sciences can sometimes be combined with digital tools and big data to generate high-quality evidence on a larger scale, in less time, and at a much lower cost. On the five-year anniversary of his book’s release, Salganik, who is also a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors, spoke with On the Evidence about the book’s legacy and the evolution of the field of computational social science since he first taught a course on the subject in 2007.

A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/princetons-matthew-salganik-discusses-the-evolving-intersection-of-data-and-social-science-ethics

Read a free online version of Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit: https://www.bitbybitbook.com/en/1st-ed/preface/

Attend a virtual book talk on February 7, 2023 about Bit by Bit, including a Q&A with the author, hosted by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dc-aapor-book-club-20-bit-by-bit-social-research-in-the-digital-age-tickets-487575530537

Listen to a previous On the Evidence episode about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS, which features Salganik: https://mathematica.org/blogs/inside-an-initiative-to-diversify-the-field-of-computational-social-science

Learn more about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS: https://mathematica.org/news/howard-university-and-mathematica-to-host-computational-social-science-summer-institute

Watch Salganik give a Tedx talk at Princeton University about the tension between ready-made data (big data) and custom-made data (with which social scientists usually work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pj95xXHN2g

Learn more about Salganik and his appointment in 2018 as a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors: https://mathematica.org/news/matthew-salganik-appointed-to-mathematicas-board-of-directors