I was happy to deliver a keynote at the LBDI-SSH Expert Meeting in Utrecht on November 18, 2025. The presentation, titled “Studying the Sometimes Unresearchable: My Researcher Wish List“, focused on the urgent needs and structural challenges facing social sciences and humanities (SSH) researchers trying to work with digital data and platforms.
In the presentation, I reviewed case studies from our own research that highlighted significant roadblocks in three areas:
- Digital Citizen Science (e.g., the low yield and demographic skew of social media data donation along with problematic data access).
- Ethical Challenges (e.g., an Ethics Board declining a study involving smart speakers due to algorithm training).
- Transparency Challenges (e.g., data stewards being unable to approve Open Science for sensitive digital trace data).
These challenges demand systemic solutions. My Researcher Wish List outlines the five critical structural investments required to move forward and capitalize on opportunities like the DSA.
My Researcher Wish List
- Research Infrastructure Design and Investment: We need structural investments for participant-centered research-infrastructure design (including maintenance!). This must be paired with fidelity checks on VLOPs data access policies (are they following the DSA?).
- RMS-Approved National Research Options: We require RMS (ethics and data stewards)-approved national research options. These should be complemented by open source testing sandboxes that all researchers can use, helping us keep pace with modern research needs while addressing the challenges posed by Big Tech.
- Standardized Data Sharing Infrastructure: We must develop a standardized infrastructure for the safe sharing of digital (trace) data. This is essential to overcome transparency challenges where data stewards cannot approve open sourcing due to sensitive data concerns. (Shout-out to the TDCC-SSH funded RIGHTS project for starting this!)
- Lobbying Against the Omnibus GPPR: There is a critical need for lobbying to highlight the risks of the omnibus GDPR (as currently presented) and its impact on the Digital Services Act (DSA).
- Broad Upskilling for SSH Researchers: We must provide broad upskilling for SSH researchers, including those who are non-computational. Accessible training resources are vital to help the next generation of social scientists understand platforms, algorithms, and digital traces to capitalize on opportunities like the DSA (Article 40) and beyond.
These five points represent a necessary agenda for making the sometimes “unresearchable” aspects of the Digital Society accessible to rigorous academic inquiry.
Thanks to LBDI-SSH Expert Meeting for the opportunity to share this vision.
[Email me for a copy of the slide deck!]