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.

About the Author
John McLevey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo (ON, Canada). He is also appointed to the Departments of Sociology & Legal Studies and Geography and Environmental Management, is a Policy Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and a Member of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at the University of Waterloo. His work is funded by research grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. His current research project focuses on disinformation, censorship, and political deliberation in the public sphere across a wide variety of national contexts and political regimes. He wrote Doing Computational Social Science (SAGE Publishing, 2021) from his experiences as a researcher and advisor, as well as teaching courses in computational social science, data science, and research methods to students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Reviews
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



Book Information
ISBN 9781526468185
Author John McLevey
Format Paperback
Page Count 688
Imprint Sage Publications Ltd
Publisher Sage Publications Ltd
Weight(grams) 1200g