An innovative and accessible guide to doing social research in the digital age
In just the past several years, we have witnessed the birth and rapid spread of social media, mobile phones, and numerous other digital marvels. In addition to changing how we live, these tools enable us to collect and process data about human behavior on a scale never before imaginable, offering entirely new approaches to core questions about social behavior. Bit by Bit is the key to unlocking these powerful methods―a landmark book that will fundamentally change how the next generation of social scientists and data scientists explores the world around us.
Bit by Bit is the essential guide to mastering the key principles of doing social research in this fast-evolving digital age. In this comprehensive yet accessible book, Matthew Salganik explains how the digital revolution is transforming how social scientists observe behavior, ask questions, run experiments, and engage in mass collaborations. He provides a wealth of real-world examples throughout, and also lays out a principles-based approach to handling ethical challenges in the era of social media.
Bit by Bit is an invaluable resource for social scientists who want to harness the research potential of big data and a must-read for data scientists interested in applying the lessons of social science to tomorrow’s technologies.
Illustrates important ideas with examples of outstanding research
Combines ideas from social science and data science in an accessible style and without jargon
Goes beyond the analysis of “found” data to discuss the collection of “designed” data such as surveys, experiments, and mass collaboration
Features an entire chapter on ethics
Includes extensive suggestions for further reading and activities for the classroom or self-study

本书为《许成钢文集》的第一卷，其中多数是曾发表于媒体的非学术和半学术的文章，面向对社会科学有兴趣的读者。

在“经济学和科学”篇，收录名为“方法论”、“制度经济学”以及“诺奖和诺奖之外”的三组文章，作者旨在通过这些文章与经济学—社会科学同行以及广大读者对话，从方法论出发探讨经济学及整个社会科学面对的一些基本问题。

在“思想之路和师友”篇，收录以“困惑与思考”和“通往科学：父母与师友”为题的两组文章。与通常纯学院教育出身的学者不同，作者学术思想的形成主要产生于自身对社会的直接观察和思考。好奇、困惑、持续地思考和学习，始终贯穿作者的学术成长之路。同时，作者的父母以及几位重要师长的启发和指引也对其产生很大的影响。这两组文章以自传和传记的形式，记录作者与他的父母和部分师友对科学和社会问题的探讨和见解，以及基本的学术态度。

作者希望这些文章不仅可以启发对社会科学感兴趣的读者，也可以帮助更广泛的读者群了解作者的父辈以及作者那一代中国知识分子的思想启蒙历程。

The Logic of Social Science offers new principles for designing and conducting social science research. James Mahoney uses set-theoretic analysis to develop a fresh scientific constructivist approach that avoids essentialist biases in the production of knowledge. This approach recognizes that social categories depend on collective understandings for their existence, but it insists that this recognition need not hinder the use of explicit procedures for the rational assessment of truth. Mahoney shows why set-theoretic analysis enables scholars to avoid the pitfalls of essentialism and produce findings that rest on a firm scientific foundation.
Extending his previous work and incorporating new material, Mahoney presents specific tools for formulating and evaluating theories in the social sciences. Chapters include discussions of models of causality, procedures for testing propositions, tools for conducting counterfactual and sequence analysis, and principles for knowledge accumulation. Equal focus is placed on theory building and explanatory tools, including principles for working with general theoretical orientations and normative frameworks in scientific research. Mahoney brings a novel perspective to understanding the relationship among actors, social rules, and social resources, and he offers original ideas for the analysis of temporality, critical events, and path dependence.
Bridging the rift between those who take a scientific approach and those who take a constructivist one, The Logic of Social Science forges an ambitious way forward for social science researchers.

做学问、搞研究离不开发表。但如何发表？有没有标准、有没有方法呢？著名学者香港中文大学李连江教授针对年轻学子在学术发表、学术研究与学者生涯等方面最为关心的问题进行了解析。全书分为六讲，分别从学术期刊的审稿标准、选题、原创、表达、投稿、学者生涯六个方面进行了探讨。有术、有道，术道结合。对于年轻学者以及即将走上学术道路的青年学子助益良多，尤其在当下学术体制考核的大背景下，本书的出版具有重大的现实意义。

本书是台湾大学著名社会学者叶启政先生的新著。全书致力于对当前社会科学中占统治地位的计量与统计方法进行理论反思，意在打破社会科 学研究的“范式迷思”。
当今的中国社会学研究，在美国社会学传统的影响下，日益表现出以经验实征方式进行量化研究的趋势。本书致力于对这种“范式迷思”进 行理论反思。作者回溯了社会学实证主义传统形成的文化-历史语境，尤其注重对统计方法中的核心概念“均值”与“变异量”进行知识社会学分析，指出其并不具有超越特定时空场域的普遍有效性。最后，作者以韦伯的“理念类型”作为一种特别的思考模式，陈述其在社会学思考中可能具备的丰富而深邃的意义。本书兼具思想史与科学史的特点，极大程度地打开了反思科学方法的大门。

David A. Freedman presents here a definitive synthesis of his approach to causal inference in the social sciences. He explores the foundations and limitations of statistical modeling, illustrating basic arguments with examples from political science, public policy, law, and epidemiology. Freedman maintains that many new technical approaches to statistical modeling constitute not progress, but regress. Instead, he advocates a 'shoe leather' methodology, which exploits natural variation to mitigate confounding and relies on intimate knowledge of the subject matter to develop meticulous research designs and eliminate rival explanations. When Freedman first enunciated this position, he was met with scepticism, in part because it was hard to believe that a mathematical statistician of his stature would favor 'low-tech' approaches. But the tide is turning. Many social scientists now agree that statistical technique cannot substitute for good research design and subject matter knowledge. This book offers an integrated presentation of Freedman's views.

The social sciences have seen a substantial increase in comparative and multi-sited ethnographic projects over the last three decades. Yet, at present, researchers seeking to design comparative field projects have few scholarly works detailing how comparison is conducted in divergent ethnographic approaches. In Beyond the Case, Corey M. Abramson and Neil Gong have gathered together several experts in field research to address these issues by showing how practitioners employing contemporary iterations of ethnographic traditions such as phenomenology, grounded theory, positivism, and interpretivism, use comparison in their works. The contributors connect the long history of comparative (and anti-comparative) ethnographic approaches to their contemporary uses. By honing in on how ethnographers render sites, groups, or cases analytically commensurable and comparable, Beyond the Case offers a new lens for examining the assumptions, payoffs, and potential drawbacks of different forms of comparative ethnography.

The book considers the past accomplishments and future agendas of comparative-historical research in the social sciences. It defines the distinctiveness of this type of research and explores its strengths in explaining important outcomes (e.g. revolutions, social provision, democracy) in the world. It includes sections on substantive research accomplishments, methodology, and theory, and features essays by some of the most important political scientists and sociologists currently working.
This review of the accomplishments and future agendas of comparative historical research in the social sciences explores its strengths in explaining important worldwide outcomes (e.g., revolutions, social provision, democracy). It includes sections on substantive research accomplishments, methodology, and theory, and features essays by some of the most important political scientists and sociologists currently working.

“我是赤着脚走路的那种人，路上没有红毯，只有荆棘。中年以后整理自己的生活经验，产生了一个疑问：当年走在路上，前面明明有荆棘，为什么走在前面的人不告诉我呢？前面有陷阱，为什么没有人做个标记呢？前面有甘泉，为什么去喝水的人不邀我同行呢？经过一番研究，我知道一般人在这方面是很吝啬的。于是我又衍生出一个想法：我一边赤脚行走，一边把什么地方有荆棘、什么地方有甘泉写下来，放在路旁让后面走过来的人拾去看看。”
——王鼎钧
世界上优秀的作品都需要性情和技术相辅相成，性情是不学而能的，是莫之而至的，人的天性和生活激荡自然产生作品的内容，技术部分则靠人力修为。——基于这样的认知，作者将直叙、倒叙、抒情、描写、归纳、演绎、综合汇成“作文七巧”，以具体实际的程式和方法，为习作者讲述作文的捷径。