IS 531:

An Introduction to the Social Sciences

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Focus

Definitions
How scientific?
The external environment
History
Problems
Information use

Quotes

"In the beginning, there were seven academic disciplines: logic, mathematics, geometry, grammar, rhetoric, music, and astrology."

"Objective laws of social behavior may exist, bu there is much room for debate what they are and whether the ones that are currently  known provide much basis for making predictions. As society changes, often in unforeseen directions, the social sciences find it difficult to keep pace." ~ W.S. Bainbridge

"Benefits from social science research are likely to be even more abstract, elusive, and hard to measure than those in the natural sciences." Kenneth Brown

"This neither the best nor the worst of times for the social sciences, marked neither by great optimism nor great pessimism. If current conditions continue, the social science of the next few decades will have a modest presence on college campuses and the halls of government, but it will have relatively little influence over society at large."  W.S. Bainbridge

"It's gotten to the point where people think if it's not in Google, it doesn't exist." ~ Danny Sullivan

"American social scientists constructed a special position for themselves in society, distant from the compromising fray of both politics and the market, yet engaged in what seemed to be disinterested service on behalf of social progress through science." ~ Lisa Anderson

Definitions

Which One?

There is no single, authoritative definition, and there is some controversy about whether or not there is a single Social Science or simply a collection of disciplines that deal with society and the human condition. The key element is a focus on human behavior and those disciplines that explore human behavior in some detail. A secondary element is a focus on those institutions which humans create and the culture related to the various ways that people live. Since the social sciences should be "scientific," there is considerable emphasis on research that provides verifiable evidence about human behavior. If research allows prediction, then the social sciences would allow people to organize and order society for the better. A typical definition of social science might be: "to identify, investigate, understand, interpret, and predict the phenomena of social life in a systematic, objective way." Historically, Marxists viewed the humanities as part of the social sciences because they deal with various aspects of human behavior, much of it social. Religion and music might be good examples.

There is some question about the degree to which the social sciences can be genuinely scientific and objective because of the nature of humans observing humans. Too, validity and reliability are more difficult in measuring human behavior because so often data must be interpreted and becomes more subjective. It is also true that different research studies on the same problem, for example, the impact of increasing the minimum wage, may arrive at quite different findings and conclusions.

Core Social Sciences

There is some disagreement about which disciplines and professions belong under the social science umbrella. Here is one list:

Expert opinion argues that psychology and economics are the dominant social science disciplines. Money and production certainly give economists something to measure in sophisticated ways.Typically, they use research approaches closer to those popular in the natural sciences. They also lend to other disciplines much more than they borrow. They usually cite work from within their discipline. Although ranked lower, sociology also plays an important role in developing research methodologies and models that are widely used in other social sciences.

Political science is most open to external disciplines and frequently borrows and cites research from other disciplines. Sociology and geography are also heavy borrowers. Economics borrows little, although there is some interest in political science topics as they impact economic behavior.

There appear to be some natural relationships between social science disciplines:

Other Social Sciences

These disciplines are often included within the social sciences

:

Hybrid SS Disciplines

Hybrids begin as fields on the frontier of two disciplines. Some will gradually become academic disciplines with their own periodicals and professional associations. Boundaries are often fuzzy. For example, where does historical sociology end and social history begin.

Here are a few social science examples:

Applied Specialties [a few examples]

Like the hybrids above, these have broken away from larger disciplines and become autonomous. Typically, they are more practical in their orientation. For example, criminology was once an important part of sociology. Sometimes, the applied specialties are mission oriented and blend insights from several academic disciplines. This is true of criminology, especially as it focuses on law enforcement and crime prevention.

Social Science Professions

Again, there is some debate about which professions to place here. At least one author uses the phrase social technologists to refer to these professions since they may apply the findings and conclusions generated by social scientists. Here is a list of notable examples:

Boundaries

Over time, the boundaries between the several social science disciplines have become firmer, but remain fuzzy. Separate disciplinary communities did not develop until the late 19th century/early 20th century. In recent decades, there has been a trend toward extreme specialization or twigging . Each discipline is divided into many fields or specialties. Such fragmentation inhibits the integration of knowledge, and is a notable barrier to the rational flow of ideas, the discovery of common problems. Often, political scientists, for example, only communicate with others in their own research and teaching area so there may be little discipline-wide sharing.

Social studies

Social studies are a recent development; they were developed in the 1920s to improve citizen education via history, geography, and civics. Traditional political and military history of the United States and Europe plus a focus on the community were the core of these studies. There was little interest in the more controversial issues studied by social scientists. The purpose was to encourage students to be:

Much of the available evidence suggests that social studies were not challenging, interesting, or particularly successful. The content of social studies, especially the degree to which it deviates from traditional truths, remains controversial today.

Socialism

Socialists believed that the advancement of the social sciences, especially in economics and sociology, would allow the creation of an advanced society that would be equitable for all. Private property as we know it would be eliminated. Conservatives argue that the social sciences and socialism were related so that social science research and social studies in school were seen as agents of the dominant state and anti-religious. By definition, social science questions traditional values and beliefs. Social science research often produces findings and conclusions that counter traditional, strongly held beliefs. Many social scientists have been associated with liberal causes.

Behavioral Sciences

Behavioral science can be used as a synonym for the social sciences or as a notably different orientation or focus. Here individual behavior is the primary concern while the social sciences are more likely to focus on institutions or people within a group. New discoveries on the "biological basis of human behavior" may make behavioral science more visible and important.

Most scholars agree that behavioral science began in 1945 with the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Political Behavior. It wanted social science to be more scientific, objective, systematic, and cumulative. Like the natural sciences, the social sciences should explain, understand, and predict. This is largely an American and contemporary approach. There is general agreement that this movement has had a notable impact on the social sciences.

There are some negatives. There may be too much emphasis on what can be measured, too much precision on trivial matters. Behavioral scientists are more likely to use jargon difficult for the lay person to understand. Finally, there may be too little appreciation for earlier approaches.

Policy Sciences

Often, managers, administrators, leaders, and especially those involved in the political environment make decisions based on hearsay, and opinion rather than objective evidence. Even when such evidence is available, it may be ignored because it goes against what people want to believe. For example, Max Weber told German leaders that unlimited submarine warfare would bring the U.S. into World War I and lead to Germany's defeat. He was ignored and his prediction came to pass.

Unlike business, government has no objective basis for making choices, no profit and loss statement. Instead, decisions are often made subjectively and foolishly. For example, there is the widely held notion that there is a "free lunch," that government can provide needed services while reducing taxes and governmental expenditures. Some social scientists worked diligently to encourage government decision-makers to use objective evidence gathered via social science research to make better decisions. For example, social science research was used in Brown vs. Board of Education to support the decision that separate but equal education did not work and could not be equal.

The policy sciences hope to:

Until recently, the Federal appeals courts relied heavily on social scientists to define and measure segregation and its impact. Social science research was used to attack racial stereotypes. The most famous of these cases was Brown v. Board of Education where social science research convinced the Court that separate could not be equal. A recent Supreme Court decision seems to lean the other way[Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1].

However, social scientists and policy-makers live in separate worlds with different and often conflicting values, reward systems, and languages. Research reports often use jargon that is difficult for the lay person to understand. Normally, social science research takes too long to answer today's problems (unless begun several years ago). Policy makers find research findings too qualified and not generalizable enough to apply to large populations. Policy makers may find research findings too radical, and they fear change in the social order. Research findings may be counter-intuitive. For example, a considerable body of research has found that capital punishment does not reduce violent crime and that stringent penalties for drug use do not lower that use. However, most people trust intuition more than research. Too, policy makers may encourage or adopt research that agrees with their opinions. They may also may encourage study in an effort to avoid making a decision.

While the accumulation of research probably will influence policy makers, it takes considerable time and effort, especially when research findings counter popular opinion. Since researchers are rarely wholly objective, some researchers affiliat with a variety of political, economic, and social advocacy organizations, including think tanks. The thoughtful politician can almost always find a researcher to support a particular position.

Hard and soft

Here, hard refers to the degree to which a discipline or a profession uses hypothesis-testing research and precise measurement. For the social science to be scientific is to assume that "natural regularities" exist at the individual, the group or larger level and can be measured. Thus, objective laws of social behavior exist and can be measured. Sometimes, substantial use of mathematics is seen as a proxy for the hardness of a discipline. Hard disciplines are like the natural science. Soft disciplines are like the humanities. The goal of hard science is accurate prediction of what will happen when an independent variable is applied to a dependent variable. Phenomena that repeat themselves allow broader generalizations and predictions. There is some question about the degree that such phenomena are found in the social sciences. Typically, economics (large data sets and rigorous analysis) and psychology (experimental method) are the hardest of the social sciences.

But "real" science has not always been hard. In the past, German mathematicians have rejected "Jewish" theories which were quite valid. Fraud and cheating indicate that numbers or "evidence" can be fudged. Disagreement among expert witnesses in suits involving scientific or technical matters has received considerable media attention. Natural phenomena can also be complex, making predictions difficult. For example, weather forecasts are not always accurate.

Are the social sciences really scientific?

Clearly, there is considerable variation from discipline to discipline. The harder disciplines have the greatest claim to being scientific. Certainly, outsiders are doubtful. They point to:

Differences between natural and social sciences

The list that follows is not universally accepted, but is typically found in the literature.

More information products and services are available for science since scientists are often able to pay for them. To some degree, this is also true of economics and business in the social sciences. Natural scientists more likely to be early adopters of information technology. They are also more likely to use digital and Net sources. Social scientists are more likely to use books, newspapers and other popular media, and are less likely to use conference proceedings.

If the social sciences are different from the natural sciences, what does that mean? Does different mean inferior? Regardless, only the social sciences measure human interaction. Limited scientific knowledge is still better than ignorance.

Brief History

Youth

Since the social sciences did not emerge in Western Europe until about the 1870s and 1880s, they are quite young both as academic disciplines and especially as sciences.

Most of today's social sciences are based upon political economy which was to be the science of modern (industrialized) society. However, it did poorly in explaining and resolving the problems from urbanization and industrialization. It was not until the 1920s, that the major social science disciplines were professional, rather than amateur, in the U.S. Franklin Roosevelt's Brain Trust certainly included socialists and economists and were active at the highest level of policy making.

The 1940s and 1950s

Social science became popular in Europe after the Second World War, but as three separate disciplines. Economics was to be the science of development and full employment. Political science was to be the science of democracy. Sociology was to be the science of modernization, creating an appropriate culture for the future.

As the European colonies became independent and the Cold War intensified, the U.S. government gave increased attention to both Communist and developing countries. Before World War II, few American scholars studied counties and cultures outside North America and Europe. There were few area specialists. Now, federal government money was available for Area Studies which brought together scholars from the humanities and the social sciences to study what had happened, what was happening, and what was likely to happen in various regions of the world. This was a new kind of multi-disciplinary research and teaching. Area studies research tended to be descriptive and soft because of the disciplines, including some from the humanities, represented. Language, literature, history, political science and anthropology were the major disciplines involved. Most research universities added at least one area studies program. Areas where the U.S. envisioned risk, e.g. the Soviet Union and China, received particular attention.

As the welfare state expanded in Europe and the U.S., the government required more information to assist in policy and procedure preparation. Government hired more professionals to do research in its own agencies and provided more funding for external research. Macro-economic planning received particular attention.

By the 1950s, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, and psychology had become well-established academic disciplines. Some social science professions had become professionalized: social welfare, urban and regional planning, management and business, and education. In the 1960s, theory and methodology "triumphed over applied work."

The 1970s

Resources for social science research and teaching declined in the U.S. and Europe. While considerable social science research is still funded by government agencies today, it requires persuasive justification. U.S. Federal agency research is often in dire financial straits.

There appeared to be a decline in public respect for social science research, perhaps because social science research did not deliver clear, easily implemented, and politically persuasive solutions to notable problems. Social science solutions to problems such as racial segregation were often unpopular. Too, some social science research seemed strange and worthless to the lay person. A "golden fleece" award in 1975 to the Federal Aviation Administration for a $57,800 study of the body measurements of airline stewardess trainees is a good example.

Discipline boundaries weakened and it became less clear what the special role of each social science was. For example anthropologists were doing cultural research in large cities (once the domain of sociologists). Once, it was easy to classify the social sciences by:

Characteristics, Problems, Trends

Employment characteristics

As you might expect for employment that is largely academic, educational requirements are among the highest of all occupations. The PhD is the minimum requirement for many positions. MS prospects are limited, but are better outside academe. There are few positions available for those with the BA or BS degree in a social science discipline or profession outside of business or education. Intellectual curiosity and creativity are fundamental personal traits. Training in statistics and mathematics is essential for most social scientists today.

The job outlook is problematic because of the budget problems facing higher education. Social science employment outside academe is expected to grow faster than average because of so many social problems, including an aging population. Psychology is expected to grow the most, then economics, marketing research and urban/regional planning. At present, over half of all social scientists are psychologists. Here, typically, the Ph.D. is the minimum requirement. In general, most social science positions will be replacement ones with a substantial number of retirements expected soon. There is considerable competition for academic positions.

Half of new PhDs in the social sciences are earned by women. In psychology and cultural anthropology, the majority of new PhDs are women. In economics, less than 25 percent of the new PhDs are women. Some worry that if a "field feminizes too much the consequences could be lowered prestige and lowered earnings."

Everyone Knows About the Social Sciences

While most Americans feel that they know little about chemistry or biology, almost every American feels that she "knows a lot" about politics, business and economics, individual and social problems. While the public tends to defer to natural scientists, they trust their intuition and core beliefs when dealing with the social sciences so that there is less respect for the social scientist.

Changing Environment

Some social scientists believe that the public environment for social science is more hostile today than before. Politically important groups and organizations do not welcome research that challenges the status quo. Thus, it is more difficult to obtain funding for social science research, especially since federal government support has been reduced. Political leaders are less interested in the social sciences as policy science. The "Golden Fleece" awards, critical of social science research on Serbian tombstones or why people fall in love, may represent a majority opinion.

We "live in a relentless blizzard of ads, messages, symbols, stories that skew reality in all directions." Disinformation, especially on the web, can be overwhelming. Information and entertainment are increasingly intermixed in the mass media.

Controversial Questions

Social science deals with a variety of difficult and contentious problems. In addition, most people intuitively feel strongly about how these problems should be solved and see little need for social science research. Examples might include:

Social problems are complex, involve many difficult to measure variables, and may involve rapid change. Research may be limited to small samples and a relatively few variables. Often, the research report is not easily understood by lay people and may contain few conclusions or recommendations that can easily be implemented by government or other organizations.

Twigging or Fragmentation

Twigging is the division of larger subjects into smaller ones where each division has a smaller audience, association, annual meeting, and periodicals. Carried to an illogical extreme, twigging could result in subjects with an audience of one. Affordable information provision, especially hard copy publication, is a function of audience size. Periodicals, for example, with few subscribers cost much more than those with a large audience.

Specialization and differentiation have been a notable trend in the social sciences since the beginning. It has led to new professions, as when social work split off from sociology, and new disciplines such as criminology (also from sociology) and international relations (from political science).

Interdisciplinary

The social sciences are intrinsically interdisciplinary. Typically, interdisciplinary research does not mean that a researcher is an expert in two disciplines. Rather, it means that the researcher is familiar with a topic common to two disciplines and can apply methodologies and insights from both.

Mission-oriented research has also had an impact by encouraging a variety of academic disciplines and professions to join together to solve a problem. For example, solving problems involving violent crime may involve law, economics, sociology, political science, and psychology. Crime studies and welfare studies are good examples of mission-oriented research. Problems related to urban transportation may involve scientific, technological, and social science disciplines. When disciplines work together to solve interesting problems, there is the potential for new hybrid disciplines like political anthropology.

Pure - Applied Relationships

In the natural and physical sciences, there is a strong, close relationship between pure or basic research [research for research] and applied research [take research and create products/applications.. Many scientists are involved in both to some degree. In the social sciences, there is some doubt about what is pure research and there seems to be little linkage between research and development.

Few Authors

Although dated, use and user studies suggest that 90 percent of the social science literature is written by five percent of those in the disciplines and professions. This means that the average social scientist is not actively involved in research and publication.

Social Science Research

Where?

Many universities and non-profit institutions have research institutes which collect, analyze, interpret, and share findings and conclusions. Often, machine-readable data is made available for further analysis. The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is the leading repository for these digital archives. UT is a member.

While often associated with research universities and Federal government agencies, social science research is also done elsewhere:

Research is important in the political process; consider all those polls. In selling or marketing products of all kinds, many organizations use social science research techniques. If evaluation is included, even more organizations conduct research involving social science techniques or topics.

Many advocacy organizations have research "institutes" as universities have for several years. These institutes conduct a wide variety of research, often designed to present policy solutions for highly visible problems. Since this research is often combined with substantial political persuasion, it can have considerable impact on policy via the creation of laws and regulations.

Greater use of numbers

Since World War II, the social sciences have become more like the natural sciences. Hypothesis-testing research and greater use of larger data sets have become common. Data archives are extremely important. First, floppy disks, then CD-ROMs, and now the Internet bring large data sets directly to the researcher's desktop. Most data archives are independent of research libraries, but libraries could play a more important role in providing intellectual access, especially to subscription-based archives.

"The borrowing of statistical methods and techniques is not always beneficial. Many social scientists that use quantitative methods extend the borders of knowledge. However, others are motivated mainly by an interest in technique rather than substance. They routinely build unverifiable models, over-quantify, and over-model."

As more powerful and less expensive computing power becomes available to academics, there is increased interest in modeling social phenomenon via computer simulations to see how society might function. Enthusiasts claim that such simulations will do for social science what the laboratory does for the natural sciences. Critics argue that social phenomenon are too complex to be modeled by computers.

Historically, research training/education has often been inadequate, especially in statistics and information technology. That has changed in recent years. Still, not all social scientists are comfortable with the current research environment.

Social Science Research Often Not Used

Often, social science research has had little impact on society. That may be because the research itself is usually narrowly focused with small samples and may offer few applicable solutions. Too, most social science research is full of jargon and statistics that make reading and understanding difficult for lay people. When presented, solutions that threaten a popular notion or the establishment may not receive a fair hearing. Most political leaders are not particularly interested in making research-based decisions. However, the opposite is true for those in business, and in politics when the research is related to popular opinion.

Some social science research has been useful and has had considerable impact. Examples often mentioned in the literature include:

Ethical problems in research

As you might imagine in a research field involving human subjects, there are a variety of ethical problems for social science researchers. Today, government regulations insure that most not-for-profit research is done according to strict guidelines with the fully informed consent of the subjects. That has not always been the case. At least a few earlier social science research projects have taken advantage of subjects. Because of fear of behavior modification , there is still some popular fear of social science research involving psychology. Many people are also fearful that data gathered by researchers will be used to invade privacy or to support inappropriate ends.

A few examples of research that may involve ethical problems:

As more academic research is funded by corporations, the researcher may be limited in what can be shared with others. The sponsor decides what is to be studied, how it will be studied, and who will know the results. Given the declining governmental funding for research and limited internal funding, the university research agenda may be set my large multi-national corporations.

These same corporations may attack research and researchers that they disagree with via law suits. While the researcher is likely to win, few have the resources to tangle with a powerful corporation and then wait several years for the outcome. Thus, researchers may decide not to study corporate behavior.

Major problems

Below appear a variety of problems faced by the social sciences. They do not appear in any particular order.

Scatter

Social science information such as working papers and reports, particularly those produced outside the academic environment, is scattered and often difficult to identify and retrieve. Many items are now available on websites, but may not be easy to find. Bibliographic control is poor. There is little synthesis or attempt to integrate and evaluate the body of literature on a particular problem or topic. With minimal replication , it is difficult to know when research findings and conclusions are generalizable. Those who need social science information are often frustrated and many users do not know how to find and evaluate the information they need. The availability of many on-line data bases and web sites have added to the information overload problem. The amount of disinformation on the web is substantial.

Limited Resources

There is a continued shortage of research funding, especially for basic research. While foundation and corporate founding remains good, Federal government funding for research, including basic statistical services, has declined notably during the past few years. There are fewer advocates for social science funding in the Congressional leadership today. There are also many critics of almost any kind of governmental research, especially on the right. Funding sources may skew research priorities since researchers are likely to study the problems where the money is. Most academic social science research is done with little or no funding. This means that research is limited and often takes several years to complete. A social science research career is much more difficult than that in the natural sciences because of limited external funding.

Limited Perspective

Unlike the natural sciences, the contemporary social sciences have been dominated by researchers from North America, and then the United Kingdom. English-speaking social science rarely cites foreign language material. Until the 1920s, European scholarship was seen as the model for the social sciences. Since the 1950s, the United States has produced the models and its research universities have been envied throughout the world. By definition, a science should be global in its application. To some degree, social sciences have developed differently in different countries according to culture, resources, and political imperatives. Social scientists in the U.S., in general, appear to have little interest in social science abroad. This is quite a contrast to the natural and physical sciences.

Literature Creation

Authorship

Following the scientific model, nearly half of the social science research reports now have multiple authors. The move from solitary to team research in the social sciences is most acute in the harder disciplines, but seems likely to spread. Of the social scientists, historians are least likely to collaborate in their research.

Social Science Information Use

In the Past

Historically, social scientists have been slower to respond to information problems and are often less familiar with information sources and systems than natural scientists. As a consequence, information sources and systems in the social sciences are less developed. This may be because social science has not had the funding available to natural science to develop sophisticated information systems. Too, many natural scientists and technologists work in environments where there is both enthusiasm for and money for information technology. That is often NOT the case in the social sciences.

Google

Omnipresent and omniscient Google has altered the information-seeking habits of most students and even some faculty. Using library collections and services may seem less important. Library catalogs may seem stiff and difficult to use in comparison to Google. Selecting and reselecting websites as well as promoting library collections is a major challenge for reference librarians.


Invisible College

The invisible college is important for all academic disciplines, including the social sciences. The Internet has created new opportunities for the isolated and less affluent social scientist to participate (exchange information) via email, web sites, and news groups. Historically, the invisible college has been of particular benefit for the elite.

The younger, less experienced researcher is less likely to be involved in the invisible college, unless doctoral work was done with a leading scientist. Informal communication is dramatically faster than formal communication. It may take more than a year for an article or a book to be published and much longer for it to appear in an index. Thus, first disclosure on the web creates an opportunity for comment sharing, visibility, and improving the product. Informal communication is especially important for know-how information [methods] which is much less likely to be found in the formal communication system. Scientists are more likely to speculate, discuss errors, and share preliminary findings in informal communication. Feedback and encouragement make a world of difference. However, much informal communication is unstable and temporary with no permanent and public record. Some informal communication on the Internet is captured, but there are doubts about long term preservation when compared with hard copy records.

Historically, informal communication has been expensive. Money is required to attend conferences, travel and make long distance telephone calls. Thus, some scientists have much greater exposure than others. While the Internet has the potential to democratize informal communication, those at leading institutions still have more and better networking opportunities.

Considerable Borrowing and Lending

As mentioned above, most social science disciplines--political science, anthropology, geography and sociology--require literature from other disciplines and professions. This complicates the identification and retrieval of needed information in a world that has traditionally relied on discipline-based information systems.

Abstracts and indexes

These are more likely to be used for current awareness than for comprehensive literature searches. Most scholars are not entirely comfortable with the data base literature search and feel that they are missing something useful. The time lag may also be a problem. The typical researcher does not have the time or interest to become comfortable with these tools. However, SDI services matched to research interests would be popular.

Conferences

Only about 25 percent of social scientists find these to be of substantial value, and then for the personal contact [networking] rather than the presentations. Thus, access to conference presentations/proceedings may not be important.

Foreign languages

About 33 percent of social scientists use foreign language material. Some suggest that the average social scientist has less foreign language competency than the average natural scientist.

In general, the typical social scientist has poor reading fluency in foreign languages. Some times the assumption is made that the important literature will be published in English. Much research done abroad is published in English, but certainly not all.

Obsolescence

Obsolescence varies notably by social science discipline, but a good general estimate might be 9 years for monographs and 6 years for periodicals. Geography, psychology, statistics, history, and sociology are more likely to use older material.

Popular Formats

Social scientists (as a group) use a wide range of material:

Empemera includes:

Today, statistical data in large data sets is especially important. With inexpensive, wide-spread computer power most social scientists can manipulate relatively large data sets at their desktop.

Gray Literature

Gray [ or grey] literature is often important to social science research. Gray literature consists of intellectual content that is not commercially published and is often missed by bibliographical control resources. Examples include, technical reports, working papers, and a wide variety of ephemera. Today, a considerable amount of grey literature appears on the web. This makes it easier to find, but preservation remains an acute problem.

University Presses

While periodicals gain in importance for first disclosure, books [both monographs and collections] remain important. University presses have some impact. The leaders are:

  1. University of Chicago [the largest]
  2. University of California
  3. Princeton University
  4. Harvard University Press
  5. Oxford University Press.
These great university presses make a major contribution to research and publication.

Digital Reference Collections

Digital reference collections, such as those provided by Oxford University Press [Oxford Reference Online], provide seamless access to collections of reference books via a web portal or gateway. Such collections are growing in popularity and provide benefits for users with the single search.

Comparisons With the Natural Sciences

There seems to be some agreement that information use from non-social science disciplines and professions is not comparable. There may be little basis for applying natural science information use findings to the social sciences. Too, there may be substantial differences in information-seeking behavior between social science disciplines. As social science, in its research methods, becomes more like the natural sciences, it should be more reasonable to generalize about information seeking behavior in academic research and across the social sciences.

Use and User Studies

Until the 1960s, there were few use and user studies. These became somewhat popular in the 1960s and 1970s. There is much less interest today. The best known studies were done in the U.K. in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the Information Requirements of the Social Sciences Project.Maurice Line, the PI (principle investigator), found that no general conclusions could be drawn from the studies reviewed and evaluated because they were typically restricted to a particular discipline and limited to a small sample of users or source characteristics. Still, we may conclude that about 10 percent of the users of the social science information system account for 90 percent of the output. Only a few both create and consume social science information. The needs of the producers differs from those of most consumers.

Current Information

Although there have been a few notable research studies in the past, there is relatively little current information on the information needs or information seeking behavior of the social scientist. We do know that many social scientists make minimal use of university libraries and on-line data bases. Chaining or pearl fishing or developing a literature search by following a few recent citations backward is common.

There is some question about the utility of much of the literature because it is limited by time and place so that social science research may not cumulate well and does not lead to broad generalizations across cultures.

User Psychology

Knowledge of user psychology was felt to be the most important factor in provision of information services. For example,

Notable Variables

Many variables affect information-seeking behavior. Some of the most notable include:

Cost

Cost has largely been ignored in studying social science information services. We need to know more about the "total" cost of providing the document or information as well as the cost when the document is not provided or is not provided promptly. Note that cost includes time, effort, frustration, anxiety and other variables. It is not merely the delivery cost of a particlar item.

How often is research duplicated unintentionally because of a flawed literature search?

When the social sciences are placed together, monographs and periodicals are of equal value. The "harder" the discipline, the more important that the serial becomes. This is a problem because of the price inflation associated with the serial literature. Information produced by government agencies is especially important in the social sciences.

The major concern of social science scholars appears to be the identification and location of material created by leading authors. These cites can then be used to identify the important literature in a topic. Citation searching is likely to be easier and more productive than subject searching [libraries often do poorly with subject descriptors]. Too, the citing provides some preliminary evidence of utility and quality [validation]. Backward chaining or following starter citations is the key literature search strategy. Still, abstracts and indexes can be very useful for graduate students and scholars working outside their own discipline. Libraries tend to be used as a source of supply for previously identified items. Finding citations by chance is quite common so browsing is more important in the social sciences.

Success?

There is little evidence, but what is available suggests that the existing information system works for some social scientists most of the time. In general, there is limited use of on-line sources but growing use of digital databases found in university libraries. In particular, needed access points for the scholar are often missing. Disciplinary oriented files do not meet the needs of the interdisciplinary or problem centered scholar. The search interface for most files is not comfortable or intuitive for the social scientist.

Libraries and Users

Popular subjects

A 1996 survey looked at popular information needs. Here are the top five popular information needs in many public libraries:

  1. Health, wellness, medicine
  2. Computers and technology
  3. Travel
  4. Business and economics
  5. Personal finance.

Three of these are social science topics.

A 2001 survey of academic libraries resulted in a list of the top circulating subjects:

  1. History
  2. Literature
  3. Social science
  4. Psychology
  5. Education
  6. Health/medicine
  7. Business
  8. Arts
  9. Science
  10. Computers
  11. Religion
  12. Performing arts
  13. Political science
  14. Fiction
  15. Economics
  16. Philosophy
  17. Biography

Seven of these are social science subjects.

Who Goes There?

Libraries are a place where graduate assistants go to retrieve known items. There are exceptions. Scholars in history often spent hours in the library working with circulating, reference, and special collections. Secondary publications are much less used. The way libraries organize and provide intellectual access to collections is not intuitive or pleasing to many social science researchers.

Social science questions are popular in public libraries and the audience is varied. Many questions can be answered by web sources or the traditional ready reference sources such as an unabridged dictionary, the World Book encyclopedia, the World Almanac, Encyclopedia of Associations, Statistical Abstracts local phone books, the local newspaper, and quick access to Consumer Reports.

Classification Schemes

Library of Congress subject headings, reflecting a 19th Century view of knowledge, are often inconsistent, illogical, lack clarity, and include poor documentation. Social science topics are often scattered. What is included in H (the primary social science class) and what is not is quite subjective. There is a persistent lack of precision or clarity. For example, the economics of a place are in HC but the commerce of a place is in HF. Rural sociology is in HT, but rural conditions of a place are in HN. History of a presidential election in U.S. history is in E while the history of a political party is in JK. Planning cities is in HT, history of cities in D-F, economic conditions of individual cities in HC, social conditions of cities in HN and governance of individual cities is in JS. Although the Library of Congress changes its subject headings each year, change has lagged far behind the use of descriptors in academic disciplines [and found in subject specific thesauri]. Aged descriptors can be controversial in public libraries. There are too few subject added entries for new items.

User Types

Policy makers

The typical policy maker has little interest in social science research except studies from major think tanks, especially those with a political perspective. Popular media accounts, newspapers and news magazines still have much impact, if social science developments are of interest. Some policy makers are beginning to use the web as an information source, especially for late-breaking current awareness. Typically, the policy maker needs information of the executive summary variety--highly distilled and with a few easily understood (and persuasive) policy options. She is often interested in the political implications of recent events/problems. If the social sciences are ever to become "policy sciences," much more of an effort will be made to get academic research [translated into policy speak] to policy makers. The leading think tanks have had an impact and they provide a useful model.

Think About

Identify three think tanks likely to issue studies of interest to politicians. Briefly discuss the nature of their research. How would you characterize their point of view?

Practitioners

Practitioners are professionals in such fields as business, geography, and social work that are involved in some sort of practice. Often, their terminal degree is the BA/BS or MA/AM/MS. They rarely see the primary literature, but may read summary versions in association periodicals or hear about research in conference presentations. There is little interest in the scholarly literature because it does not help them on the job. They want solutions to current problems. They do not have the time nor the inclination to read widely. They want "how to do it good" literature.

Think About

Identify and characterize a periodical likely to appeal to a professional in a SS profession of interest. Any evidence of research?

College and University teachers

Here teachers are those who teach but who are not actively involved in research. As an aside, it should be noted that a majority of those who teach (with the PhD) in colleges and universities are not active researchers. Teachers are more likely to use the library, use a greater variety of materials, and are interested in current findings/conclusions. Their major problem is that there is too much literature and they may need help in identifying the genuinely important new literature. They do use ILL, but often find it troublesome many items requested turn out to be irrelevant. State of the art review articles, sytheses, and bigger picture books are popular.

Think About

Identify and characterize a [SS of your choice] periodical likely to appeal to a college teacher who needs synthesis and an interesting summary of new developments? Is there such a periodical?

K-12 Teachers and Students

The key words here are likely to be "social studies" and the focus is more likely to be on whatever is mentioned in the state standards [you need to have access to those] rather than the social sciences as a whole. History and geography receive some attention. Government is more popular than political science. Psychology and economics receive little attention. Sociology is largely ignored, but many of its topics, pre-marital sexual activity, drug use, gangs and violence interest. The present emphasis on testing reading, writing, and math leaves little room for social studies.

They need material that is reasonably current and accurate while still being interesting and engaging. Books and periodicals need to have colorful graphics to attract and summarize key points. Multi-media items are useful for class viewing and to serve as discussion vehicles. Since the social sciences are often controversial, the collections need to be balanced and not so controversial as to attract negative attention from parents and other community members.

H.W. Wilson's Social Sciences Full Text does a good job of providing older students and teachers with access to selected scholarly literature. InfoTrac OneFile or similar full-text data bases are likely to be popular because their coverage is reasonably comprehensive and full-text is much better for most users.

Think About

Identify and characterize a social science topic of interest to K12 classroom teachers [select grades]. What sort of content would be helpful?

The Thoughtful Layperson

Each of the social sciences will have some appeal to the thoughtful adult. Some may be interest in learning more about the background of current events, including biographies of leaders. Others will want to improve the quality of their lives by learning how to do new tasks and adding to their knowledge. Again, the key is to balance popularity and accessibility with authority and accuracy.

Often, people will need factual information. Fact books and WWW sites with accurate, current facts are always in demand. The Statistical Abstract, the World Almanac, and the CIA World Factbook plus your favorite encyclopedia will answer many queries.

Think About

Review two weeks of the New York Times best seller list. Which books, if any, deal with social science topics. Which topics seem to be the most popular?

Selection problems

Unlike the natural sciences or technology where many feel that they know little or nothing, in the social sciences everyone is an expert. Often, the lay person feels that he knows as much as the subject specialist or even that the subject is not worth knowing. Many social science topics are controversial and arouse passions. How much propaganda, dogmatism, polemics, partisanship and personal bias is acceptable? It is very difficult to achieve balance and represent disgusting points of view For example, consider "research" that argues the Holocaust never happened or that African-Americans are intellectually inferior to other Americans. This means that social science material is more likely to generate complaints or censorship requests.

Finding popular treatments that do not oversimplify or distort can be a problem. Scholarly work is rarely really readable and interesting for the lay person or the undergraduate student. Both jargon and the use of statistics, tables, and figures may be troublesome. Popularizations are needed which are readable enough for the lay person but reasonably acceptable to the scholar. Most experts find popularizations simplistic so this is a difficult task.

Because the human condition is in a constant state of flux, currency is always a problem. There is substantial interest in current awareness information. Trends and fads create popular books with little intellectual content or value. This is especially true in areas like pop psychology where mediocre "self-help" content is popular. However, for the scholar of a period, a movement, or a cultural phenomenon, ephemeral material may be needed in the future. Popular culture research casts a wide net.

In selecting authoritative material, it is difficult to establish the difference between what is genuinely authoritative and what is merely established. What is authoritative today may be seen as foolish or discredited tomorrow.

Discussion

One

Construct and be able to support a definition of the social sciences. Add to that a list of academic disciplines and professions that should be included under the social science umbrella.

Two

Support the notion that the social sciences can be scientific.

Three

Support the notion that the social sciences can never be truly scientific.

Four

Identify and discuss issues or problems in the current news where research findings might find an unwelcome reception.

Five

The evidence strongly suggests that most social scientists make minimal use of the research library. What might you suggest to increase library use and to make library collections and services more valuable to the social scientist?

Last major revision: August 2007.


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