Big Data

Abstract

This chapter describes aspects of big data that are especially challenging for survey researchers - the size and complexity of the databases and the analytic approaches favored by data scientists. It discusses the challenges of assessing data quality when working with big data and reviews applications in market, opinion, and social research. The emergence of data mining is especially significant in the context of big data because it ushered in a perspective on data analysis that is substantially different from the classic statistical analysis typically used in survey research, a perspective that today people call data science. Big data and data science opportunities exist in the physical sciences as well and have been widely used in fields as diverse as cosmology and weather forecasting. The chapter concludes with two ethical considerations when using big data and some musings about the future of surveys in a big data world, including consent and confidentiality.

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