Social scientists are increasingly drawing on web data to analyze social behavior, opinion formation, cultural preferences, or political polarization. Collecting social media data and other digital behavioral data (DBD) up to the standards of social science research is a non-trivial task and often a challenge to individual researchers. GESIS develops innovative methods for the collection of digital behavioral data in the social sciences. In accordance with the proprietary and privacy restrictions that apply, we provide the resulting data for scientific re-use. GESIS offers a range of collected, curated, and augmented datasets; these data are transparent, ready-to-use and often accompanied by additional materials or tools. We concentrate on topical data relevant for the social sciences, training data – e.g., for attribute or opinion detection – or large datasets that can be further mined for individual research purposes.
With the "Total Error Sheets for Datasets" (TES-D) we propose a template for documenting datasets that have been collected from online platforms for research purposes; the Total Error Sheets for Datasets are based on our "Total Error Framework for Digital Traces of Human Behavior on Online Platforms" (TED-On).