Figure 8: Future challenges for social science data
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Source: “Ensuring the Data-Rich Future of the Social Sciences”. Science Magazine. http://gking.harvard.edu/files/datarich.pdf
2.2 Analysis Working with new data sources brings about a number of analytical challenges. The relevance and severity of those challenges will vary depending on the type of analysis being conducted, and on the type of decisions that the data might eventually inform. The question “what is the data really telling us?” is at the core of any social science research and evidence-based policymaking, but there is a general perception that “new” digital data sources poses specific, more acute challenges. It is thus essential that these concerns be spelled out in a fully transparent manner. The challenges are intertwined and difficult to consider in isolation, but for the sake of clarity, they can be split into three distinct categories: (1) getting the picture right, i.e. summarising the data (2) interpreting, or making sense of the data through inferences, and (3) defining and detecting anomalies.54
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