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Doing Computational Social Science

A Practical Introduction

John McLevey author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Sage Publications Ltd

Published:27th Dec '21

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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Doing Computational Social Science cover

Computational approaches offer exciting opportunities for us to do social science differently. This beginner’s guide discusses a range of computational methods and how to use them to study the problems and questions you want to research.

It assumes no knowledge of programming, offering step-by-step guidance for coding in Python and drawing on examples of real data analysis to demonstrate how you can apply each approach in any discipline.

The book also:

  • Considers important principles of social scientific computing, including transparency, accountability and reproducibility.
  • Understands the realities of completing research projects and offers advice for dealing with issues such as messy or incomplete data and systematic biases.
  • Empowers you to learn at your own pace, with online resources including screencast tutorials and datasets that enable you to practice your skills and get up to speed.

For anyone who wants to use computational methods to conduct a social science research project, this book equips you with the skills, good habits and best working practices to do rigorous, high quality work.

This book adds two key components critical for social science students that are often lacking in other texts. The first is a discussion of key computing components starting at the most basic – often these steps are overlooked in texts written for computer science students. Second is the excellent grounding in and integration with social science theory and concepts. -- Lorien Jasny
McLevey has provided us with a book that clearly imparts the technical skills of computational methods, but crucially he has done so in a way that accessibly embeds them in a social science context. Whilst we’ve previously been told "how" to do computational social science, McLevey expertly ensures we understand "why" too. -- James Allen-Robertson

ISBN: 9781526468192

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1390g

688 pages