IMPORTANT NOTICE: We have taken the reluctant decision to postpone SICSS 2020 due to the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic. We are planning to re-host the same (or as similar an event as possible) in the summer of 2021. If you have already applied, you should have received an email with further details. The following SICSS partner sites are still running a virtual event: SICSS-Duke, BAY-SICSS, SICSS-Istanbul, SICSS-Los Angeles, SICSS-Maastricht and SICSS-Montréal. Many of these sites will be offering open-access online events. Please check back for further details regarding SICSS-Oxford 2021 in due course!
We are planning to host (in the summer of 2021) a Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at the University of Oxford (SICSS-Oxford). The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. The Summer Institute is for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived), and is open to those affiliated with departments, centres or institutions both within and outside of the University of Oxford.
The instructional program will involve lectures, group problem sets, and participant-led research projects. There will also be research talks by speakers who conduct computational social science research in a variety of settings, such as academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include: website scraping and digital trace data, text as data, machine learning, non-probability sampling, an introduction to the reproducible workflow, ethics, and geospatial analysis. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. Because we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty and students for the Summer Institute will be released open source.
Participation is restricted to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and untenured faculty within 7 years of their Ph.D. There are no registration fees to attend SICSS-Oxford and meals and refreshments will be provided free of cost for all participants at SICSS-Oxford during the event. For a limited number participants from outside Oxford, we will provide scholarship support to help cover accommodation and travel (up to a set cap). We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. About twenty-five participants will be invited, and participants are expected to fully attend and participate in the entire two-week program.