Academic research is not all sunshine and rainbows. Whether you are doing quantitative or qualitative research, you must collect a lot of data. Is there a shortcut? Of course! Prompt for web scraping.

How do scholars learn to stop fretting and love web crawlers

Web scraping can do wonders for your academic research. Indeed, more and more scholars rely on this method because it enables them to conduct research more effectively. For example, you can crawl the Web to collect data from Web forums and social media, or monitor Web pages over time. In addition, you can search academic papers to find papers relevant to your research!

But how do you capture academic research? In short, if you’re trying to capture the data behind your login, or are gathering information from private forums, you could be lurking in muddy waters.

So let’s examine some of the ethical issues associated with web scraping for academic research.

Abide by the rules

There’s a golden rule in the web scraping world: If the average user can’t access the data on the site, you shouldn’t try to access it. This may be sensitive information and you should not do it under any circumstances.

Also, before starting any web scraping project, be sure to liaise with the university’s IT department and IRB to develop a data management plan. Also, be sure to read the site’s terms and conditions to avoid legal complications and check if the site has its API.

Respect the site you are searching for

Respect never goes out of style. Therefore, when crawling, please try to appreciate the bandwidth of the site. For example, if you don’t code yourself, download some web scraping applications designed to collect only the files you want to collect. This way, you consume significantly less bandwidth, making your scraping experience more efficient and minimizing the impact on your web server.

Also, be sure to wait at least a few minutes between requests and, if possible, scrape during off-peak hours. In the meantime, grab a cute cup of coffee!

How to scratch social media for academic purposes

For many researchers, social media is a cornucopia of examples of political and social behavior. It allows for a variety of observational studies on related topics, such as the dynamics of political participation or the spread of fake news.

But this is not a back and forth situation. You must really be aware of how to collect this data to meet your academic needs.

So social media has personal data. Many laws and regulations protect such data. In addition, the ethical standards of the scientific community themselves dictate that you must protect the privacy of your users. This means that you must avoid any harm that might be done by associating actual people with those mentioned in the study.

In addition, you can’t observe any of the topics in your own private environment. For example, this might include their Facebook wall, private messages or closed groups that you don’t have access to. I mean, you don’t want to be big brother, do you?

Of course, if you do quantitative research, you are likely to be personally harmed by data breaches. You must be vigilant when conducting qualitative research because you may disclose personal data by citing users’ posts as evidence. The best way is to use pseudonyms. This way, you can analyze the data and track the activity of topics without compromising them.

Proxy conducts ethical Web crawls

Agency also plays a huge role here. For example, if you need to collect large amounts of data from the same site, you will undoubtedly have to use an ethical residential or data center agent. They will help you avoid any IP prohibitions and gather relevant information more efficiently.

Also, as with data journalism, you should decide if you can identify yourself. In most cases, you will need to prove your identity. So simply write a note in the HTTP header that includes your name and the fact that you are a researcher. If the webmaster wants to contact you, you can also leave your phone number!

On the other hand, in some cases, you may need to use a proxy without identifying yourself. As mentioned, don’t forget to cheer on your IT and IRB teams!

Smartproxy agent:

  • Official website SmartProxy.com Smartdaili-china.com