Digital methods (i.e., use of online and digital technologies to collect and analyse research data), have been utilised by a variety of disciplines. In an era in which social life is increasingly played out online, such methods offer different ways of asking new questions and generating new data. However, digital methods raise some concerns for researchers, such as maintaining ethical research practices, avoiding unrecognised biases, and keeping up with the pace of contemporary technological developments. Despite over a decade of innovation and some notable achievements, digital methods have yet to be fully accepted into the mainstream.
This network for methodological innovation, funded by the NCRM in 2012-13, aimed to build capacity in the research community to address the opportunities and challenges that digitally inspired methods present for social research. Through a series of three seminars, the network brought together researchers from a range of disciplines and career stages to map out, engage with and advance current debates in digital methods. The network showcased a cross-disciplinary range of contemporary social science research projects that effectively and innovatively utilise digital methods; and, finally, identified future roles for such methods within the mainstream of social research.