In social science, formal and quantitative models, ranging from ones that describe economic growth to collective action, are used to formulate mechanistic explanations of the observed phenomena, ...

Is social science research trustworthy? The economist Noah Smith raises this question in a recent piece entitled “How many of our ‘facts’ about society health, and the economy are fake?” As he points ...

Sustainability science is an emerging field of academic research. Sustainability scientists focus on understanding and addressing the complex interactions between humans and the natural world from an ...

Although large-scale data are increasingly used to study human behaviour, researchers now recognize their limits for producing sound social science. Qualitative research can prevent some of these ...

Readers respond to an editorial on difficulties with replicability of results in social science research Your editorial on social science research (15 April) highlights the poor replicability of ...