The Oxford e-Social Science Project:
ethical, legal and institutional dynamics or grid-enabled e-sciences
Research
Case-study research
Case studies are being undertaken in the following areas:
- Qualitative Data
- Quantitative Data
- Biological and Biomedical Data
- Collaborative Research Environments
- Web 2.0 Collaborative Environments
- Geosimulation / Geovisualization
Issue-based studies
Issues being studied include: ownership in relation to IPR; institutional infrastructures (including copyright, IPR, liability, contracts etc); privacy and data protection; sustainability; virtual research environments (VREs) in Higher Education institutions; ethics in e-social science; privacy and trust; co-present and distributed collaboration (including issues of trust, ownership, motivation and working practices); disciplinary cultures and work practices; the history and future of e-Science; anonymity and confidentialiy; and Open Science. They are informed by literature reviews, in-depth interviews and the case studies.
Survey research
Are social scientists aware of e-research initiatives? What are the characteristics of early adopters of e-social science practices and technologies? Our survey was designed to gain an understanding of the centrality of a variety of tools to social research.