Handbook of Computational Social Science

[chengjun]

Edited by Taha Yasseri

• Published: 11 Dec 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781802207293
• eISBN: 9781802207309
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802207309
• Pages: 956

This accessible Handbook provides a comprehensive exploration and overview of computational social science (CSS), bringing together global experts to examine its boundary-spanning nature. With an interdisciplinary focus, chapters explore the transformative power of computational approaches in social science and take a forward-looking approach to anticipate the next wave of methodological innovations in CSS and emerging research areas, including societal aspects of Artificial Intelligence and other data-driven technologies.

Keywords: Computational Social Science; Big Data And Social Behavior; Agent-Based Modeling; Digital Sociology; Social Network Analysis; Digital Experiments

Table of Contents

PART I: FOUNDATIONS

1: My personal and our collective journey in computational social science
Taha Yasseri

2: Computational social science: past, present, and future
Duncan J. Watts and David Lazer

3: How computational social science can help to improve public policymaking
Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu

4: Computational social science, artificial intelligence, and the future of media theory
Ralph Schroeder

5: On the intersection of analytical sociology and computational social science
Martin Arvidsson, Peter Hedström, Benjamin F. Jarvis, and Marc Keuschnigg

6: Computational inductive research
Laura K. Nelson
PART II: METHODS
Section 1: Novel data sources

7: Using data from social media for computational social science research
Katrin Weller and Indira Sen

8: Text data and natural language processing
Dirk Hovy, Margot Gerondeau, and Jan Globisz

9: Mobile social networks: using WhatsApp data for computational social science research
Kiran Garimella

10: Social media data donation and digital tracking
Felicia Loecherbach and Wouter van Atteveldt

11: Open data in computational social science research
Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Johanna Walker, and Elena Simperl

12: An online picture is worth a thousand words
Federico Botta
Section 2: Social network analysis

13: Temporal networks of social interactions
Jari Saramäki and Petter Holme

14: Multilayer social networks
Mikko Kivelä

15: Strong friendship paradox in social networks
Kristina Lerman

16: Estimating causal effects in experiments with network spillovers
Stephanie Zonszein, P. M. Aronow, and Cyrus Samii
Section 3: Agent-based modeling

17: Agent-based models and networks
Andreas Flache, Marijn A. Keijzer, and Michael Mäs

18: Exploring theory with agent-based modeling and simulation
Jan Lorenz
Section 4: Text analysis

19: Learning the social pragmatics of language
Luca Maria Aiello

20: Learning with weak supervision for computational social science
Diyi Yang and Caleb Ziems

21: Computational text sentiment analysis: methods, applications, and challenges
Mike Thelwall
Section 5: Experimental methods

22: From online experiments to big experimental data
Stefano Balietti

23: Behavioral experiments in computational social science
Vincent Buskens, Rense Corten, and Wojtek Przepiorka

24: Natural experiments in computational social science: principles, methods, and applications
David J. Harding
PART III: APPLICATIONS
Section 1: Politics

25: Analyzing political bots on Twitter: an introduction
Simon Lindgren

26: Social media and electoral prediction: ten years after
Daniel Gayo-Avello, Andreas Jungherr, and Gonzalo Rivero

27: Computational social science approaches to sustainability and climate change
Viktoria Spaiser

28: Opinion dynamics in social networks: from models to data
Antonio F. Peralta, János Kertész, and Gerardo Iñiguez
Section 2: Justice and equality

29: Computational approaches to the study of corruption
Isabela Villamil, János Kertész, and Johannes Wachs

30: Social movements in the digital age
Adina Gitomer, Alyssa Smith, Hana Chalmers, Larissa Doroshenko, Robin A. Lange, Alex Madaras, Ryan J. Gallagher, Tamanna Urmi, and Brooke Foucault Welles

31: Minorities in networks and algorithms
Fariba Karimi, Marcos Oliveira, and Markus Strohmaier

32: Computing gender
Orsolya Vásárhelyi and Siân Brooke
Section 3: Communication and information dynamics

33: Social bots: detection and challenges
Kai-Cheng Yang, Onur Varol, Alexander C. Nwala, Mohsen Sayyadiharikandeh, Emilio Ferrara, Alessandro Flammini, and Filippo Menczer

34: Communication during crisis: examining the dynamics of rumors online
Emma S. Spiro

35: Quantifying and modeling language change
Eduardo G. Altmann

36: Societal algorithmification and its computational measurement
Martin Hilbert
Section 4: Health

37: Employing social media to improve mental health outcomes
Munmun De Choudhury

38: Modeling the spreading of infectious diseases in the digital age
Nicola Perra

39: Computational demography and health
Zack W. Almquist, Courtney Allen, and Ihsan Kahveci
Section 5: Human, group, and social dynamics

40: An overview of the science of success
Xindi Wang, Alexander J. Gates, and Albert-László Barabási

41: Big love: computational approaches to the study of large-scale patterns in online dating behavior
Liesel L. Sharabi, Marco Dehnert, and Callie Graham

42: Universalities in human mobility
Sune Lehmann and Laura Alessandretti

43: Quantifying the temporal dynamics of collective memory and attention in social systems
Cristian Candia

44: Measuring and modeling bursty human phenomena
Márton Karsai and Hang-Hyun Jo
Section 6: Economy and finance

45: A computational social science approach to urban economies
Neave O’Clery and Andres Gomez-Lievano

46: Exploring blockchain networks: decentralization, trust, and social dynamics
Raffaele Cristodaro, Carlo Campajola, and Claudio J. Tessone

47: Cooperation, a field-experimental approach
Delia Baldassarri and Johanna Gereke

Section 7: Creativity and intelligence

48: Collaborative creativity as a field within computational social science
Balazs Vedres

49: Studying collective intelligence in the lab
Abdullah Almaatouq and Joshua Aaron Becker

50: Hybrid intelligence: combining collective and artificial intelligence for adaptive control
Niccolò Pescetelli

51: The statistical relationship between scientific prizes and the dynamics of careers and topic development
Yifang Ma, Ching Jin, and Brian Uzzi

52: Science of science: citation models and research evaluation
Vincent A. Traag

53: Computational sociology of humans and machines: conflict and collaboration
Taha Yasseri
Section 8: Online communities, knowledge, and education

54: Shocks in crowds, networks, and online communities
Danaja Maldeniya and Daniel M. Romero

55: Unpacking time in online behaviors: a temporal framework for computational social science
Tai-Quan Peng and Jonathan J. H. Zhu

56: Navigating knowledge: patterns and insights from Wikipedia consumption
Tiziano Piccardi and Robert West

57: Understanding and improving social factors in education: a computational social science approach
Nabeel Gillani and Rebecca Eynon

58: Interconnectedness in education systems
Cristian Candia, Javier Pulgar, and Flávio L. Pinheiro
Back Matter