Paper about the Digital Democracy Lab

Gilardi, Fabrizio, Lucien Baumgartner, Clau Dermont, Karsten Donnay, Theresa Gessler, Maël Kubli, Lucas Leemann, and Stefan Müller (2021). “Building Research Infrastructures to Study Digital Technology and Politics: Lessons from Switzerland.” PS: Political Science & Politics, First View, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096521000895

A key issue for the study of digital technology and politics is the lack of adequate research infrastructures. The article discusses the challenges many social scientists face and presents the infrastructure we built in Switzerland to overcome them — the Digital Democracy Lab. We identify seven lessons: automatization is key; avoid data hoarding; outsource some parts of the infrastructure but not others; focus on substantive questions; share data in the context of collaborations; engage in targeted public outreach; and collaboration is more promising than competition.