Prospects for Online Crowdsourcing of Social Science Research Tasks: A Case Study Using Amazon Mechanical Turk

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Schmitt-Sands ◽  
Richard J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk

scholarly journals Online panels in social science research: Expanding sampling methods beyond Mechanical Turk

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 2022-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Chandler ◽  
Cheskie Rosenzweig ◽  
Aaron J. Moss ◽  
Jonathan Robinson ◽  
Leib Litman
Keyword(s):  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Internal Reliability ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Online Panels ◽  
Student Subject

Abstract Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is widely used by behavioral scientists to recruit research participants. MTurk offers advantages over traditional student subject pools, but it also has important limitations. In particular, the MTurk population is small and potentially overused, and some groups of interest to behavioral scientists are underrepresented and difficult to recruit. Here we examined whether online research panels can avoid these limitations. Specifically, we compared sample composition, data quality (measured by effect sizes, internal reliability, and attention checks), and the non-naivete of participants recruited from MTurk and Prime Panels—an aggregate of online research panels. Prime Panels participants were more diverse in age, family composition, religiosity, education, and political attitudes. Prime Panels participants also reported less exposure to classic protocols and produced larger effect sizes, but only after screening out several participants who failed a screening task. We conclude that online research panels offer a unique opportunity for research, yet one with some important trade-offs.

scholarly journals On the Ethics of Crowdsourced Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (01) ◽  
pp. 77-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Journal Editors ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
Science Departments ◽  
Low Wages

ABSTRACTThis article examines the ethics of crowdsourcing in social science research, with reference to my own experience using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. As these types of research tools become more common in scholarly work, we must acknowledge that many participants are not one-time respondents or even hobbyists. Many people work long hours completing surveys and other tasks for very low wages, relying on those incomes to meet their basic needs. I present my own experience of interviewing Mechanical Turk participants about their sources of income, and I offer recommendations to individual researchers, social science departments, and journal editors regarding the more ethical use of crowdsourcing.

scholarly journals It has Always Known, and we have Always been ‘other’: Knowing Capitalism and the ‘Coming Crisis’ of Sociology Confront the Concentration System and Mass-Observation

2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
First Case ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Empirical Sociology ◽  
Coming Crisis

It has been suggested that the contemporary form of capitalism – knowing capitalism – is distinctively different from its earlier incarnations by being ‘knowing’ in unprecedented ways; and that there is a ‘coming crisis of empirical sociology’, because related technological developments are producing a leading-edge research infrastructure located firmly within knowing capitalism, rather than in academic social science. These arguments are counter-posed here through two case studies. Thinking over the longer run via these suggests that ‘it has always known’ and sociologists ‘have always been “other” ‘, and that the current situation is not as new as is claimed. The first case study concerns the reverberations of the South African War (1899–1902) and particularly the ‘concentration system’ and its knowledge-based and generating classification, measurement and disposition of groups of people. The second case study concerns the post-World War Two impact of wartime changes in the configuration of research and knowledge on Mass-Observation, a radical social science research organization on the borders and ‘other’ to institutionalised sociology.

scholarly journals Research in Afghanistan: Innovative Strategies for Overcoming Methodological Challenges

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 2123-2131
Author(s):  
Parwez Besmel ◽  
Frederic I. Solop
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Mortgage Market ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Future Work

This paper examines challenges associated with conducting social science research in third world, conflict settings. Employing a qualitative, case study approach, we highlight the methodological barriers confronted by administration of Afghanistan Research Services’ (a Division of Afghanistan Holding Group) Mortgage Market Assessment, a study conducted in five major Afghanistan cities. While these barriers may be viewed through the lens of western social science as threatening the validity of legitimate research, innovative accommodations in the areas of sampling, quality control and mitigation of fear and mistrust led to successful data collection efforts. This case study of research in Afghanistan, offers lessons for ambitious researchers interested in adapting standard research techniques to future work with non-western peoples living under conflict conditions

Algorithmic management versus organising protest and co-determination? The case of Foodora/Lieferando in Germany

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
Jasmin Schreyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Work Coordination ◽  
Platform Economy

The so-called ‘platform economy' or ‘gig economy' and its ambivalent effects on the working environment is a focal point of social science research. The contribution analyses, based on a case study, algorithmic work in the platform economy, its working conditions, and the way gig workers organised and articulated their protest. The algorithmic management of Lieferando (formerly Foodora) governs its employees through algorithmic-driven and standardized work coordination. Therefore, different conflicts between the company and its workers arose, concerning working conditions, working relations, and co-determination. Organising, protest, and established co-determination mechanisms play a crucial role for the employees. As a result, there exists currently a few institutionalized relationships between the platform and its workforce in Germany.

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