Many thanks to @aksoyundan.bsky.social and the team for organizing a fantastic INAS conference at Nuffield College, @ox.ac.uk. It was a great pleasure to be a part of it!
Heinz Leitgöb
@heinzleitgoeb.bsky.social
Interim Professor of Sociology & Research Methods at Leipzig University | Research Fellow at University of Frankfurt, Germany
Early Bird Registration ends on May 8th! Be sure to register by this date to secure the lower registration price. We have worked closely with local hotels to secure discounted rooms, which you can access at this link: ic2s2-2026.org/accommodation/
Accommodation
12th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) — Burlington, Vermont, July 28-31, 2026. Hosted by the Vermont Complex Systems Institute at the University of Vermont.
ic2s2-2026.org
As part of the special issue Explanation and Causality in Sociology, @rubac.bsky.social, @cklamm.bsky.social and I discussed what it takes to do causal inference with text as data - whether we try to explain texts, treat them as causes, or use them as controls 💬🔍👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Text as Data and Causal Inference in Sociology - KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
This article discusses and showcases approaches to causal inference with text as data, focusing on the challenges and opportunities that arise when sociological constructs are embedded in language. We...
link.springer.com
🇦🇹 Do you want to add your own survey question to the Austrian Socio-Economic Panel #ASEP? There is now a call for open modules for ASEP wave 2 (autumn 2026): www.statistik.at/fileadmin/pa...
New paper co-authored with Marcel Günther on rare-event data collection is now available online and forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Measurement in the Social Sciences: www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
Rare-event data collection
The study of rare but high-impact events poses substantial analytical challenges because conventional sampling approaches yield limited outcome inform…
sciencedirect.com
Jetzt an der LMU: Master Computational Social Science (M.Sc.) Bewerbungen für die 2. Kohorte sind offen. Der interdisziplinäre Studiengang verbindet Kommunikationswissenschaft, Soziologie und Politikwissenschaft mit daten- und computergestützten Methoden. Info-Sprechstunde: 27. April.
it set this one back when everyone was doing it go.bsky.app/3H1Pf9z
🎧 New podcast episode: making use of ODISSEI infrastructure! @drtomemery.bsky.social talks with @kasiakarpinska.bsky.social about how ODISSEI can improve your research and make it easier 💡 ➡️ They also introduce the ODISSEI Early Career Board 🔗 Listen to the podcast episode here: edu.nl/dvdcf
Interested in causal inference with survey data? Join the GESIS Summer School course with @tobiaswolbring.bsky.social and me: training.gesis.org?site=pDetail... @gesistraining.bsky.social
GESIS Training Courses
training.gesis.org
📣 The program of the #GESISsummerschool is out & registration is open! 🗓️ 22 July – 14 Aug 2026 Venue (depending on course): 🏢 GESIS Cologne 💻 Online More info at gesis.org/summerschool. Full program & registration at t1p.de/GSS26-Program.
A highly-recommendable state-of-the-art discussion of computational text analysis for theory building and testing by @mhbodell.bsky.social , @marckeuschnigg.bsky.social , @anamacanovic.bsky.social , and @anmen.bsky.social: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Computational Text Analysis for Building and Testing Social Theory - KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
Digitization and advances in natural language processing have transformed how sociologists can measure, model, and interpret social life through text. We provide an overview of computational text anal...
link.springer.com
Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and identify new research partners across academic fields? Apply to one of the 2026 Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (described in yellow in the attached map) here: sicss.io/locations
How far can you get in 60 minutes? European cities offer vastly larger areas reachable by public transit than US cities of comparable population size. Source: lconwell.github.io/lucasconwell...
Der Soziologische Aschermittwoch 2026 zum Thema „Akademische Freiheit" zum Nachsehen: youtu.be/AOZd4tmwrvU?... Mit @cdiehl.bsky.social @naikaforoutan.bsky.social, Markus Ogorek, Uwe Schimank, Richard Traunmüller und @jmwiarda.bsky.social @wisocologne.bsky.social #AdenauerSchoolofGovernment
Soziologischer Aschermittwoch 2026
YouTube video by UniversitaetzuKoeln
youtu.be
Now out in the American Sociological Review We present the first large-scale assessment of the structure and evolution of temporalities expressed in U.S. climate change news coverage (2000 to 2021). For this, we analyzed more than 23,000 statements about climate change effects and actions. 🧵 1/
📣 New month, new chances! Discover our latest #GESISworkshops: 📊 Einführung in die quantitative Datenanalyse 💻 Advanced R Programming 🧪 Using Simulation Studies to Evaluate Statistical Methods 🌍 Field Experiments 📐 Anwendung von Modellen der Item-Response-Theorie Find yours ➡️ gesis.org/workshops
⏳ Only 6 days left until registration #GESISsummerschool opens on 2 March! Check out the course overview on our website www.gesis.org/summerschool, pick your favorites, and start planning your summer. 🌞 @gesis.org
Don't miss your chance to register now! 👉 t1p.de/Intro_Geospa...
GESIS Training@gesistraining.bsky.social · 7mo agoCurious how geospatial data can enhance your research?🗺️ Join our #GESISworkshop to learn best practices for acquiring and processing geo data, creating maps, & assessing spatial dependencies – all in R! ➡️ Register and find all the details t1p.de/Intro_Geospa... @gesis.org @astroppe.bsky.social
Accessible for all here: doi.org/10.31235/osf...
Taha Yasseri@tahayasseri.bsky.social · 6mo agoChapter 5: @martinarvidsson.bsky.social, Hedström, Jarvis & @marckeuschnigg.bsky.social on the intersection of Analytical Sociology and Computational Social Science. Computational tools are most powerful when used to identify and test mechanisms, not just describe or predict aggregate patterns.
📚 Special issue in Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie on Explanation and Causality in Sociology. Essential reading on where causal inference in sociology is heading link.springer.com/collections/...
Special Issue: Explanation and Causality in Sociology
How to explain social phenomena? How to conceptualize causality and draw valid causal inferences? How to incorporate history and culture into explanations? ...
link.springer.com
Joint paper with @floriankeusch.bsky.social out now: We discuss opportunities and challenges of causal inference from digital behavioral data, and methodological approaches for making these data fit for purpose: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Causal Inferences from Digital Behavioral Data - KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
In recent years, digital behavioral data (DBD) have emerged as a powerful resource in social science research. Their ubiquity, granularity, complexity, and continuous collection provide new opportunit...
link.springer.com
New paper on causal machine learning with Nanum Jeon @nanum-jeon.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Causal Machine Learning: A Deductive–Inductive Framework for Sociological Research - KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
Causal explanation is central to sociological research, shaping both theoretical development and empirical inquiry. This paper argues that causal machine learning—which integrates deductive identifica...
link.springer.com
While LLMs will try to follow good research practices by default, you can pretty easily convince them to p-hack for you. In one case (out of the 4 tested), the LLM moved the result from p > 0.05 to p < 0.001. github.com/janetmalzahn...
Congrats to my wife Nathalie, Ina Biber, and all colleagues on the nationwide representative LeSuBiA survey on violence victimization in Germany. First results: www.bka.de/SharedDocs/D...
bka.de
Read our latest special issue in Survey Methodology: ➡️ Advancing Comparative Research: Exploring Error and Quality Indicators in Social Research. Edited by @heinzleitgoeb.bsky.social, Stefanie Kley, Katharina Meitinger & Natalia Menold. surveyinsights.org
My colleague Kevin Munger asked me and a bunch of editors to sit and think through AI and peer review. Our take: osf.io/9sxnc/files/... We envision an increased (!) involvement of humans in the evaluation of social science.
Stellen frei! Derzeit suchen wir mehrere neue Mitarbeitende in verschiedenen Bereichen des infas Instituts, zum Beispiel in der Fragebogenprogrammierung, der Datenpflege- und Rücklaufverarbeitung sowie für Interviewerschulungen (Werkstudentenstelle). Neugierig? www.infas.de/karriere/
