Mangold, F., & Stier, S. (2025). Overview of Working with Web Tracking Data (GESIS Guides to Digital Behavioral Data, 23). Cologne: GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
https://doi.org/10.60762/ggdbd25023.1.0
How can web tracking be used as a method for studying digital media use and online behavior? How does web tracking data collections differ from other digital research methods ?
The GESIS Guide to DBD provides answers to these and other questions on the topic of “web tracking”. The guide introduces the conceptual foundations of web tracking, outlines its methodological advantages, and discusses key technical, ethical, and legal challenges. It also provides an overview of practical implementation steps, including software development, participant recruitment, and data processing. Throughout this guide, examples informed by existing research illustrate how web tracking can be leveraged to study a wide range of topics, such as political communication and news use, health information-seeking, or climate change communication.