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How the Internet Changed Social Science Research

How the Internet Changed Social Science Research. Richard J. Butler Economics

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How the Internet Changed Social Science Research

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  1. How the Internet Changed Social Science Research Richard J. Butler Economics Gratitude for help: Sebastian Nilsson, Neil Larson, Daniel Butler, Matt Butler, Sam Butler, Department of Economics’ Faculty especially Lars Lefgren, Andi Sneed, Katie Johnson, the FHSS College and the family of Martin Hickman.

  2. Lecture Browser • Academic Papers Before the Internet • Internet changed the making of academic papers through 3 channels of influence: • Data accessibility • Finding co-authors • Working with co-authors *** It’s Not Your Full Professor’s World ***

  3. Getting an idea

  4. Search for related research

  5. Go the stacks (full government depository)

  6. The Research Librarian

  7. The Departmental Seminar

  8. The internet changed this process…

  9. Getting an idea

  10. Has it been done before? Marg at State did something similar.

  11. I’ll write up model and literature review if you do the data collection and regression. Interested, Marg?

  12. Getting the Data

  13. The Departmental Seminar

  14. More Data Analysis. More Revising.

  15. 1. Internet changed data accessibility

  16. 2. The internet lowered the cost of finding a co-author.

  17. 3. The internet lowered the cost of working with a co-author.

  18. Three Channels to examine, but first... • Measuring the “academic internet” effect = (# working papers with email address/# total working papers) • Journals included in the analysis

  19. Journals included • Anthropology • CA-Current Anthropology (1990-1999) • EH-Enthohistory (1990-2004) • Economics • AER-American Economic Review (1990-2000) • JPE-Journal of Political Economy (1990-2000) • Political Science • AJPS-American Journal of Political Science (1990-2002) • APSR-American Political Science Review (1990-2000) • JP-Journal of Politics (1990-2000) • Psychology • PB-Psychological Bulletin (1990-2004) • PR-Psychological Review (1990-2004) • SPQ-Social Psychology Quarterly (1990-2002) • Sociology • AJS-American Journal of Sociology (1990-2000) • ASR-American Sociological Review (1990-2002) • SF-Social Forces (1990-2004)

  20. 1. Internet changed data accessibility

  21. 2. The internet lowered the cost of finding a co-author.

  22. Presentation Quality Regression Quality

  23. Presentation Quality Minimum Presntion Quality Regression Quality Minimum Regression Quality

  24. Presentation Quality Regression Quality

  25. So, before internet we had… Six—800-pound gorillas who publish, go to conferences, review each others work Two—chimps only good enough in the presentation dimension Three—chimps only good enough in the regression dimension Eleven—monkeys not good enough in either dimension But as the internet lowers “finding a co-author costs”, then…

  26. Presentation Quality Regression Quality

  27. Lower “finding co-authors” costs lets chimps combine and specialize: They become gorillas More new authors Higher quality papers More multiply-authored articles and if costs of finding a foreign co-author is reduced relative to a domestic co-author…

  28. Presentation Quality Regression Quality

  29. Lower “finding co-authors” costs lets chimps combine and specialize: They become gorillas: More new authors Higher quality papers More multiply-authored articles and if costs of finding a foreign co-author is reduced relative to a domestic co-author… More papers with foreign authors

  30. Lowered “finding co-authors” costs will tend to spread publications across a greater number of academics.

  31. 3. The internet lowered the cost of working with a co-author.

  32. Costs lowered in that: • Cheaper and faster to share files • data • word documents • Cheaper and faster to monitor work of co-authors • Costs of specialization lower: • Literature Review/research context searches • Computer code (download off the internet)

  33. Presentation Quality Regression Quality

  34. Will Gorillas want to co-author? Co-authoring increases Gorrilla’s output if: • Two co-authored articles in the AER are better than one solely authored article • McDowell, John M., and Janet Kiholm Smith. 1992. "The Effect of Gender-Sorting on Propensity to Coauthor: Implications for Academic Promotion." Economic Inquiry 30(1): 68-82. • There are constant or increasing returns due to specialization

  35. If the Internet “lowers working with Co-authors” costs, then Gorillas (established authors) will co-author more often and there will be: Relative increase in the number of co-authors for established authors Relatively more articles published for established authors More multiply-authored articles with established authors Higher quality papers (on average, with no necessary improvement at top)

  36. Lowered “working with co-authors” costs may concentrate publications toward established authors.

  37. The last slide on probability of the “same dept co- authors” (P) was a (percent) “difference” estimator: But to compare established authors with other authors we will use “difference in difference” estimators:

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