Provenance of Social Media - Survey & Responses

Survey instrument and anonymised responses collected as part of Sub-Project B4 “Provenance of Social Media” of the Social Media - Developing Understanding, Infrastructure & Engagement (Social Media Enhancement) Project.  The survey aimed to further our understanding of the current practices and attitudes towards the provenance of data collected from social media platforms and its analysis by researchers in the social sciences.  This includes all forms of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Quora, blogs, discussion forums, etc.  The survey was conducted as an online-survey using Google Forms.  Findings from this survey influenced the work of the sub-project, and the development of tools to support researchers who wish to increase the transparency of their research using social media data.  


Dataset of collected survey responses, and pdf versions of the Google Forms online survey instrument. Each PDF file denotes one possible survey path that depended on the response of a participant to the question “What level of experience do you have using data from a social media platforms as part of your research?”  The three paths are:

SurveyInstrument-Path-1.pdf - is used if the participant selected the option "I have used/am currently using social media data as part of my research."
SurveyInstrument-Path-2.pdf - is used if the participant selected the option "I am aware of others using social media data as part of their research and may consider using it within mine."
SurveyInstrument-Path-3.pdf - is used if the participant selected the option "Neither of the above."

Creators
Creator Name: Corsar, David
Email: dcorsar@abdn.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen

Creator Name: Markovic, Milan
Email: milan.markovic@abdn.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen

Creator Name: Peter Edwards
Email: p.edwards@abdn.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen

Research funders: ESRC
Grant Reference: ES/M001628/1

Subjects: Social media research

Keywords: provenance, social media research

Project Title:  Provenance of Social Media
Grant holders: Peter Edwards

Coverage and Methodology
Collection period: Date From: 1 Aug 2016 To: 31 Aug 2016
Geographical area: UK
Country: UK
Data collection method: This dataset was created via an online survey.  Respondents were self selecting from emails to social science researchers and Tweets requesting participants to complete the form.  The sample population were social science researchers that have used or plan to use data from social media services in their research.
Observation unit: individuals
Kind of data: Tabular
Resource language: English

Data sourcing, processing, and preparation:  Survey responses as provided by respondents.  Free text entries have been anonymized where necessary.  Data processed and analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Copyright holders:
Creator Name: Peter Edwards
Email: p.edwards@abdn.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen

Available Files
Describing Research that uses Data from Social Media Services (Responses) – Abstracted
Accessible to: Anyone
File or bundle content: Data
File or bundle description: Excel file containing anonymized survey responses.  
Fiel format: Microsoft Excel

Documentation 
SurveyInstrument-Path-1.pdf 
Accessible to: Anyone
File or bundle content: Documentation
File or bundle content: Survey path used if the participant selected the option "I am aware of others using social media data as part of their research and may consider using it within mine” to the question “What level of experience do you have using data from a social media platforms as part of your research?”  
File format: PDF

SurveyInstrument-Path-2.pdf 
Accessible to: Anyone
File or bundle content: Documentation
File or bundle content: Survey path used if the participant selected the option "I have used/am currently using social media data as part of my research" to the question “What level of experience do you have using data from a social media platforms as part of your research?”  
File format: PDF

SurveyInstrument-Path-3.pdf 
Accessible to: Anyone
File or bundle content: Documentation
File or bundle content: Survey path used if the participant selected the option Neither of the above" to the question “What level of experience do you have using data from a social media platforms as part of your research?”  
File format: PDF

Consent-form.pdf
Accessible to: Anyone
File or bundle content: Documentation
File or bundle content: An information sheet was shown to respondents along with a consent form they were required to complete before starting the survey.
File format: PDF