Editorial: Big data in social research

Abstract

In the recent American Association for Public Opinion Research report on ‘big data’ (Japec et al., 2015), sources of big data are defined as follows: social media data; personal data (e.g. data from tracking devices); sensor data; transactional data; administrative data. The common feature of these sources of data is that the data are ‘organic’ meaning that they are by-products of processes where the main purpose is not for social research. The sources of data follow the general principles of big data: large volumes of data at high velocity and in varying formats (Laney, 2001, 2012). The authors of the report also include administrative data in the sources of big data. Statistical agencies have long been considering the use of administrative data in their statistical systems and there are many examples of successful applications, particularly in the area of business statistics. Statistical agencies are becoming more involved with processes to improve the quality of administrative data and efforts are made to carry out statistical data editing procedures to satisfy the quality assurance framework of the European statistical systems: relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness, coherence and accessibility. The UK Statistics Authority has recently set standards for ensuring the quality of administrative data (UK Statistics Authority, 2015).

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