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- Addressing Missingness in Serialized Bureaucratic Data: The Case of
Chinese Courts-
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Authors: Xiaohan Wu; Margaret E. Roberts, Rachel E. Stern, Benjamin L. Liebman, Amarnath Gupta, Luke Sanford Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Courts around the world are putting their data online, making information about caseloads, parties, and decisions available to the public. Yet, this data is far from complete, and often only reflects a portion of courts’ dockets. We offer and validate a ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-06-13T05:55:28Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251340610
- An Optimal Stratification Method for Addressing Nonresponse Bias in
Bayesian Adaptive Survey Design-
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Authors: Yongchao Ma; Nino Mushkudiani, Barry Schouten Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. In a probability sampling survey, adaptive data collection strategies may be used to obtain a response set that minimizes nonresponse bias within budget constraints. Previous research has stratified the target population into subgroups defined by ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-06-02T07:54:08Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251345463
- Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages
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Authors: Hannah Waight; Solomon Messing, Anton Shirikov, Margaret E. Roberts, Jonathan Nagler, Jason Greenfield, Megan A. Brown, Kevin Aslett, Joshua A. Tucker Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data' This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups shape media discourse, to the spread of policy across institutions, to the diffusion of ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-06-02T07:53:58Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251340080
- The Causal Effect of Parent Occupation on Child Occupation: A Multivalued
Treatment with Positivity Constraints-
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Authors: Ian Lundberg; Daniel Molitor, Jennie E. Brand Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. To what degree does parent occupation cause a child’s occupational attainment' We articulate this causal question in the potential outcomes framework. Empirically, we show that adjustment for only two confounding variables substantially reduces the ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-06-02T07:52:51Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251338412
- Simulating Subjects: The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence
Stand-Ins for Social Agents and Interactions-
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Authors: Austin C. Kozlowski; James Evans Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Large language models (LLMs), through their exposure to massive collections of online text, learn to reproduce the perspectives and linguistic styles of diverse social and cultural groups. This capability suggests a powerful social scientific application—... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-06-02T07:52:12Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251337316
- Generative Multimodal Models for Social Science: An Application with
Satellite and Streetscape Imagery-
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Authors: Tina Law; Elizabeth Roberto Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Although there is growing social science research examining how generative AI models can be effectively and systematically applied to text-based tasks, whether and how these models can be used to analyze images remain open questions. In this article, we ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-27T08:28:04Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251339673
- Using Large Language Models for Qualitative Analysis can Introduce Serious
Bias-
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Authors: Julian Ashwin; Aditya Chhabra, Vijayendra Rao Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Large language models (LLMs) are quickly becoming ubiquitous, but their implications for social science research are not yet well understood. We ask whether LLMs can help code and analyse large-N qualitative data from open-ended interviews, with an ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-27T08:05:34Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251338246
- Tracking Ideological Changes in an Authoritarian State Using Retweeting
Ties: The Case of Chinese Opinion Leaders-
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Authors: Yinxian ZhangDepartment of Sociology; 14781Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), Flushing, NY, USA Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. While public opinion and ideology can impact political outcomes in an authoritarian state, measuring and tracking its ideological change remains a challenge. This is largely due to data constraints in nondemocratic contexts, such as limited data on ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-23T08:06:33Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251343580
- Accounting for Individual-Specific Heterogeneity in Intergenerational
Income Mobility-
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Authors: Yoosoon Chang; Steven N. Durlauf, Bo Hu, Joon Y. Park Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. This article proposes a fully nonparametric model to investigate the dynamics of intergenerational income mobility for discrete outcomes. In our model, an individual’s income class probabilities depend on parental income in a manner that accommodates ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-22T07:40:12Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251339654
- The Unrealized Potential of Audits: Applicant-Side Inequalities in Effort,
Opportunities, and Certainty-
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Authors: Mike Vuolo; Sadé L. Lindsay, Vincent J. Roscigno, Shawn D. Bushway Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Randomized audits and correspondence studies are widely regarded as a “gold standard” for capturing discrimination and bias. However, gatekeepers (e.g., employers) are the analytic unit even though stated implications often center on group-level ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-22T07:39:35Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251338240
- Balancing Large Language Model Alignment and Algorithmic Fidelity in
Social Science Research-
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Authors: Alex Lyman; Bryce Hepner, Lisa P. Argyle, Ethan C. Busby, Joshua R. Gubler, David Wingate Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize social science research. However, researchers face the difficult challenge of choosing a specific AI model, often without social science-specific guidance. To demonstrate the ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-21T11:29:26Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251342008
- Updating “The Future of Coding”: Qualitative Coding with Generative
Large Language Models-
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Authors: Nga Than; Leanne Fan, Tina Law, Laura K. Nelson, Leslie McCall Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Over the past decade, social scientists have adapted computational methods for qualitative text analysis, with the hope that they can match the accuracy and reliability of hand coding. The emergence of GPT and open-source generative large language models (... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-21T11:28:19Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251339188
- Integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence into Social Science
Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation-
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Authors: Thomas Davidson; Daniel Karell Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers new capabilities for analyzing data, creating synthetic media, and simulating realistic social interactions. This essay introduces a special issue that examines how these and other affordances of generative ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-07T07:31:51Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251339184
- From Codebooks to Promptbooks: Extracting Information from Text with
Generative Large Language Models-
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Authors: Oscar Stuhler; Cat Dang Ton, Etienne Ollion Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Generative AI (GenAI) is quickly becoming a valuable tool for sociological research. Already, sociologists employ GenAI for tasks like classifying text and simulating human agents. We point to another major use case: the extraction of structured ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-07T07:19:04Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251336794
- Generative AI Meets Open-Ended Survey Responses: Research Participant Use
of AI and Homogenization-
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Authors: Simone Zhang; Janet Xu, AJ Alvero Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. The growing popularity of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools presents new challenges for data quality in online surveys and experiments. This study examines participants’ use of large language models to answer open-ended survey questions and ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-05-07T07:18:08Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251327130
- Conceptualizing Job and Employment Concepts for Earnings Inequality
Estimands With Linked Employer-Employee Data1-
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Authors: Donald Tomaskovic-Devey; Chen-Shuo Hong Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. We examine variations in pay gap estimates and inferences associated with distinct conceptualizations of jobs and employment contexts under legal and comparable worth theories of pay bias. We find that job titles produce smaller estimates of within job ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-24T08:28:58Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251334124
- Large Language Models for Text Classification: From Zero-Shot Learning to
Instruction-Tuning-
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Authors: Youngjin Chae; Thomas Davidson1Department of Sociology, 5970Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Large language models (LLMs) have tremendous potential for social science research as they are trained on vast amounts of text and can generalize to many tasks. We explore the use of LLMs for supervised text classification, specifically the application to ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-24T08:28:26Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251325243
- The Mixed Subjects Design: Treating Large Language Models as Potentially
Informative Observations-
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Authors: David Broska; Michael Howes, Austin van Loon Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Large language models (LLMs) provide cost-effective but possibly inaccurate predictions of human behavior. Despite growing evidence that predicted and observed behavior are often notinterchangeable, there is limited guidance on using LLMs to obtain valid ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-22T08:28:53Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251326865
- Networks Beyond Categories: A Computational Approach to Examining Gender
Homophily-
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Authors: Chen-Shuo HongDepartment of Sociology; 33561National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Social networks literature has explored homophily, the tendency to associate with similar others, as a critical boundary-making process contributing to segregated networks along the lines of identities. Yet, social network research generally ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-22T08:28:41Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251321152
- The Target Study: A Conceptual Model and Framework for Measuring Disparity
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Authors: John W. Jackson; Yea-Jen Hsu, Raquel C. Greer, Romsai T. Boonyasai, Chanelle J. Howe Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. We present a conceptual model to measure disparity—the target study—where social groups may be similarly situated (i.e., balanced) on allowable covariates. Our model, based on a sampling design, does not intervene to assign social group membership or ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-22T02:58:41Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251314037
- Correcting the Measurement Errors of AI-Assisted Labeling in Image
Analysis Using Design-Based Supervised Learning-
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Authors: Alessandra Rister Portinari Maranca; Jihoon Chung, Musashi Hinck,
Adam D. Wolsky, Naoki Egami, Brandon M. Stewart Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has shown incredible leaps in performance across data of a variety of modalities including texts, images, audio, and videos. This affords social scientists the ability to annotate variables of interest from ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-21T08:47:05Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251333372
- Machine Bias. How Do Generative Language Models Answer Opinion Polls'
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Authors: Julien Boelaert; Samuel Coavoux, Étienne Ollion, Ivaylo Petev, Patrick Präg Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly presented as a potential substitute for humans, including as research subjects. However, there is no scientific consensus on how closely these in silico clones can emulate survey respondents. While ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-21T08:46:14Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251330582
- Social Mobility as Causal Intervention
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Authors: Lai Wei; Yu Xie Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. The study of mobility effects is an important subject of study in sociology. Empirical investigations of individual mobility effects, however, have been hindered by one fundamental limitation, the unidentifiability of mobility effects when origin and ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-21T08:29:46Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251320963
- The Insight-Inference Loop: Efficient Text Classification via Natural
Language Inference and Threshold-Tuning-
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Authors: Sandrine Chausson; Marion Fourcade, David J. Harding, Björn Ross, Grégory Renard Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Modern computational text classification methods have brought social scientists tantalizingly close to the goal of unlocking vast insights buried in text data—from centuries of historical documents to streams of social media posts. Yet three barriers ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-04-18T07:36:40Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251326819
- Locating Cultural Holes Brokers in Diffusion Dynamics Across Bright
Symbolic Boundaries-
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Authors: Diego F. Leal1School of Sociology; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Although the literature on cultural holes has expanded considerably in recent years, there is no concrete measure in that literature to locate cultural holes brokers. This article develops a conceptual framework grounded in social network theory and ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-03-19T01:16:20Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251322517
- Deep Learning With DAGs
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Authors: Sourabh Balgi; Adel Daoud, Jose M. Peña, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Jesse Zhou Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Social science theories often postulate systems of causal relationships among variables, which are commonly represented using directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). As non-parametric causal models, DAGs require no assumptions about the functional form of the ... Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-03-12T06:05:37Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251319291
- When to Use Counterfactuals in Causal Historiography: Methods for
Semantics and Inference-
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Authors: Tay Jeong; 5620McGill University, Montréal, Canada Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. According to the interventionist framework of actual causality, causal claims in history are ultimately claims about special types of functional dependencies between variables, which consist not only of actual events but also of corresponding counterfactual states of affairs. Instead of advocating the methodological use of counterfactuals tout court, we propose specific circumstances in historical writing where counterfactual reasoning comes in most handy. At the level of semantics, that is, the specification of the variables and their possible values, an explicit specification of the latent contrast classes becomes particularly useful in situations where one may be prompted to take an event that is pre-empted by the antecedent of interest as its proper causal contrast. At the level of inference, we argue that cases in which two or more antecedents appear to be playing a similar role tend to fumble our pretheoretical intuition about cause and propose a sequence of counterfactual tests based on actual examples from causal historiography. Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-02-03T05:21:16Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241251314039
- The Integration of Bayesian Regression Analysis and Bayesian Process
Tracing in Mixed-Methods Research-
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Authors: Lion Behrens, Ingo Rohlfing; Ingo Rohlfing Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. In this article, we develop a mixed-methods design that combines Bayesian regression with Bayesian process tracing. A fully Bayesian multimethod design allows one to include empirical knowledge at each stage of the analysis and to coherently transfer information from the quantitative to the qualitative analysis, and vice versa. We present a complete mixed-methods workflow explaining how this is accomplished and how to integrate both methods. It is demonstrated how to use the posterior highest density interval and the Bayes factor from the regression analysis to update the prior level of confidence about what mechanisms possibly connect the cause to the outcome. It is further shown how to choose cases for the qualitative analysis through posterior predictive sampling. We illustrate this approach with an empirical analysis of colonial development and compare it with alternative designs, including nested analysis and the Bayesian integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-01-23T09:50:31Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241241295336
- Improving Cross-Cultural Comparability of Measures on Gender and Age
Stereotypes by Means of Piloting Methods-
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Authors: Natalja Menold, Patricia Hadler, Cornelia Neuert; Patricia Hadler, Cornelia Neuert Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. The study addresses the effects of piloting methods on the cross-cultural comparability and reliability of the measurement of gender and age stereotypes. We conducted a summative evaluation of expert reviews, cognitive pretests and web probing. We first piloted a gender role, an ageism, and a children stereotypes instrument in German and American English. We then randomly assigned the original and piloted versions to respondents in Germany and the United States using an online survey experiment and quota samples. No configural invariance was shown by the original instruments and the reliability of the gender role instrument was insufficiently low. The results show that piloting methods increased reliability and improved measurement invariance, although the effects varied by topic. Cross-cultural expert reviews and web probing provided more consistent results than other methods. A combination of web probing and cross-cultural expert reviews can maximize both reliability and measurement invariance. Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-01-21T10:31:21Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241241307600
- The Rise in Occupational Coding Mismatches and Occupational Mobility,
1991–2020-
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Authors: Andrew Taeho Kim, ChangHwan Kim; ChangHwan Kim Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Occupation is a construct prone to classification mismatches by coders and description inconsistency by respondents. We explore whether mismatches in occupational coding have recently increased, what factors are associated with the rise in mismatches, and how the rise affects estimates of intragenerational occupational mobility. Utilizing the 1991–2020 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, which collects information on respondents’ current occupation and the previous year’s main occupation, we identify coding mismatches and compare the probabilities of occupational mobility based on four combinations of two variables. Our results show that not only do the estimates of occupational mobility between two adjacent years vary substantially across measures, but also that the magnitudes of intragenerational occupational mobility across measures become increasingly decoupled over time. We demonstrate that the likely cause of this divergence is the rise in coding mismatches between coders. We discuss the implications of our findings. Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-01-16T02:16:58Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241241303517
- Using Google Maps to Generate Organizational Sampling Frames
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Authors: Brad R Fulton, David P King; David P King11772O'Neill School of Public Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA2Indiana University, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indianapolis, IN, USA Abstract: Sociological Methods & Research, Ahead of Print. Organizational researchers use a variety of methods to obtain sampling frames. The utility of these methods, however, is constrained by access restrictions, limited coverage, prohibitive costs, and cumbersome formats. This article presents a new method for generating organizational sampling frames that is cost-effective, uses publicly available data, and can produce sampling frames for many geographic areas in the U.S. The Python-based program we developed systematically scans the Google Maps platform to identify organizations of interest and retrieve their contact information. We demonstrate the program's viability and utility by generating a sampling frame of religious congregations in the U.S. To assess Google Maps’ coverage and representativeness of such congregations, we examined two nationally representative samples of congregations and censuses of congregations in a small, medium, and large city. We found that Google Maps contains approximately 98% of those congregations––extensive coverage that ensures a high degree of representativeness. This study provides evidence that using Google Maps to generate sampling frames can improve the process for obtaining representative samples for organizational studies by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and providing greater coverage and representativeness. Citation: Sociological Methods & Research PubDate: 2025-01-16T02:15:58Z DOI: 10.1177/00491241241305095
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