Doing Open Social Science: A Guide for Researchers

Open science is a set of principles and practices that aims to make research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefit of researchers and society as a whole. Doing Open Social Science: A Guide for Researchers is the first comprehensive book setting out the principles and practices of open research, tailored specifically for those in the social science disciplines, at every career stage, offering practical advice on how to make research more transparent, trustworthy and reusable.

Divided into four parts, the book explores the core principles and philosophy of open social science. Part II addresses how to improve the reproducibility of research through open approaches, including chapters on the principles and tools of documenting research as you go and on open data practices. Part III focuses on open practices within the qualitative social sciences. Chapters examine interview-based research, case studies and fieldwork, systematic documentation analysis, archival data and the role of openness in citizen (social) science. Part IV addresses shifting research cultures, with chapters on strategies for presenting research clearly and accessibly to maximise reach and impact and on open access publishing. The book ends with a discussion of the future of open social science. Ultimately, it argues, openness as a wider cultural change can renew the social sciences and the core foundations for academic progress in more dynamic and sustainable ways.

This is an essential guide for anyone working in the social sciences, from doctoral candidates and early career researchers to experienced academics and practitioners, who wants to engage more effectively with open research.

Patrick Dunleavy is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He worked in the Department of Government at LSE from 1979 to 2020, and before that at the Open University and Nuffield College, Oxford. He is also Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Canberra, where he was Centenary Professor 2015-21. A Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences, he also served as Founding Editor in Chief at LSE Press from 2020-2023. He was Director of the UK Democratic Audit from 2013-2020 and co-led the Australian Democratic Audit from 2020 to 2024. His recent books include Australia's Evolving Democracy: A New Democratic Audit (open access from LSE Press, 2024, co-edited with Mark Evans and John Phillimore); Maximizing the Impacts of Academic Research, (2021, Palgrave, now Bloomsbury Press, co-authored with Jane Tinkler); and The UK's Changing Democracy: A New Democratic Audit (open access from LSE Press, 2018, co-edited with Alice Park and Rosamund Taylor).

Timothy Monteath has been Assistant Professor in Data Visualization in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methods at the University of Warwick since 2023. Previously, he was Associate Lecturer in Human Geography and Data Visualisation at University College, London; CIVICA Open Social Science Researcher at the LSE; and a post-doc Research Associate in Finance and Geography at the University of Oxford. His PhD in Sociology from the LSE focused on the Information Infrastructure of Land Registration in England. He is a co-author (with others) of Atlas of Finance: Mapping the Global Story of Money, Yale University Press, 2024.