When nominated into the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, one is asked to say how they will contribute to the College. During my nomination I pitched an idea for a new Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) on quantitative social science research policy and data infrastructure (including survey and social media methods). With the support of a few fellow members (Mark Stoddart, Karen Foster and Elizabeth Dubois) that IRG has just been provisionally approved. Now we are looking for additional members, and writing a funding application to staff some empirical work to support it. Please get in touch with me if you are an RSC College member who is interested to hear more. A brief description follows:
Ask Canada: Toward robust data infrastructure and policy settings for quantitative social science in Canada
The landscape of quantitative social science research methods in Canada is a chaotic mix of practices and proxies both poorly understood at a system level and poorly equipped to support replicable research. This includes inadequate social science data infrastructure, inattention to policy settings to support empirical methods, and typically (bar a few fee-for-service labs) small, atomized academic teams that experience significant transaction costs in using them. Declining survey response rates drive many to work with polling firms or online modes of distribution that may compromise data quality and generalizability of insight. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science highlights the need to “[invest] in open science infrastructures and services”, but there is an ongoing tension globally—recognized by SDG 16 in relation to strong institutions—between high-quality, inclusive and representative data to inform decision-making and adequate protection of privacy. Open government initiatives are improving in line with global initiatives for default-open practices but Canada has thus far been focused on data repositories and access to government data and research, rather than supporting academic-led research. In fact, academic research is explicitly prohibited from accessing some resources (e.g. electoral rolls) that in comparable jurisdictions are available to their social scientists upon application. A piecemeal set of alliances and networks exist in Canada to support various aspects of social science but leave gaps in the support of quantitative social methods. This IRG will undertake literature review, expert methods, workshops and/or public surveys. By its end we will synthesize the state of quantitative social science in Canada, widely mobilize knowledge about best practices and trade-offs, and make recommendations for social science data infrastructure and public policy to foster quantitative social science research for the public interest.
