Also consider the widely used textbook by Creswell & Creswell, "Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches" (5th Edition, ISBN 978-1506386706), as a general reference for the social sciences with relevance to much of the research literature about Wikipedia.
It's pretty long and comprehensive (perhaps overly so for some purposes), with e.g. * entire chapters about how to do a literature review and on how to use theory * detailed checklists for various research designs (such as the two reproduced here <http://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/26101_08ca.doc>, for surveys and experiments), * and "recipes" for writing research study proposals and papers in various contexts. The book emphasises the importance of identifying the particular "philosophical worldview" guiding the choice of research approach (qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods) and other aspects of a particular research project. In chapter 1 (available online <https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/55588_Chapter_1_Sample_Creswell_Research_Design_4e.pdf> for the 4th edition), Creswell & Creswell describe four such worldviews in detail, which I personally found quite useful in keeping track of the different beliefs and assumptions underlying research publications bout Wikipedia from various fields: *1. Postpositivism (aka the scientific method)* characterized by an emphasis on causality, the reduction of ideas and theories to research questions and testable hypotheses, etc. "The postpositivist assumptions have represented the traditional form of research, and these assumptions hold true more for quantitative research than qualitative research. This worldview is sometimes called the scientific method, or doing science research. It is also called positivist/postpositivist research, empirical science, and postpositivism." *2. (Social) Constructivism* "typically seen as an approach to qualitative research" (such as ethnography or case studies), emphasizing the social construction of meaning "The goal of the research is to rely as much as possible on the participants’ views of the situation being studied", with subjective meanings "formed through interaction with others (hence social constructivism) and through historical and cultural norms that operate in individuals’ lives." *3. "The Transformative Worldview"* "This position arose during the 1980s and 1990s from individuals who felt that the postpositivist assumptions imposed structural laws and theories that did not fit marginalized individuals in our society or issues of power and social justice, discrimination, and oppression that needed to be addressed. There is no uniform body of literature characterizing this worldview, but it includes groups of researchers that are critical theorists; participatory action researchers; Marxists; feminists; racial and ethnic minorities; persons with disabilities; indigenous and postcolonial peoples; and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer communities. [...] these inquirers felt that the constructivist stance did not go far enough in advocating for an action agenda to help marginalized peoples." "Transformative research uses a program theory of beliefs about how a program works and why the problems of oppression, domination, and power relationships exist." *4. "The Pragmatic Worldview"* (kind of a pick-and-choose stance about worldviews, which the authors appears to sympathize with) "Pragmatism is not committed to any one system of philosophy and reality. This applies to mixed methods research in that inquirers draw liberally from both quantitative and qualitative assumptions when they engage in their research." "Truth is what works at the time. It is not based in a duality between reality independent of the mind or within the mind." Regards, Tilman On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 8:28 AM Andrew Green <agr...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Hi all, > > I hope this is the right place to ask this question! > > I was wondering if folks who are doing (or are interested in) research > about Wikipedia might like to share texts that they feel best describe > the general research frameworks they use (or might like to use). > > I'd love to hear about any texts you like, regardless of format > (textbook, paper, general reference, blog post, etc.). > > It seems a lot of work about Wikipedia uses approaches from > Computational Social Science. The main references I have for that are > [1] and [2]. > > I'm especially interested in links between Computational Social Science > and frameworks from more traditional social sciences and cognitive science. > > Many thanks in advance!!!!! :) Cheers, > Andrew > > [1] Cioffi-Revilla, C. (2017) /Introduction to Computational Social > Science. Principles and Applications. Second Edition./ Cham, > Switzerland: Springer. > > [2] Melnik, R. (ed.) (2015)/Mathematical and Computational Modeling. > With Applications in Natural and Social Sciences, Engineering, and the > Arts/. Hoboken, U.S.A.: Wiley. > > -- > Andrew Green (he/him) > _______________________________________________ > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
