Platform-controlled social media APIs threaten open science | Nature Human Behaviour

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Social media data enable insights into human behaviour. Researchers can access these data via platform-provided application programming interfaces (APIs), but these come with restrictive usage terms that mean studies cannot be reproduced or replicated. Platform-owned APIs hinder access, transparency and scientific knowledge.

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These authors contributed equally: Darja Wischerath, Daniel Racek, Douglas A. Parry.

School of Management, University of Bath, Bath, UK

Brittany I. Davidson, Darja Wischerath, Emily Godwin, Joanne Hinds & Laura Ayravainen

Department of Statistics, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Munich, Germany

Daniel Racek

Department of Information Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Douglas A. Parry

Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK

Dirk van der Linden

BT Applied Research, Ipswich, UK

Jonathan F. Roscoe

Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, UK

Alicia G. Cork

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B.I.D. conceptualized the work; B.I.D., D.W., D.R., J.H. and D.A.P. wrote the original draft; B.I.D., D.R., D.A.P., D.W., E.G., J.F.R., J.H., D.v.d.L., A.G.C. and L.A reviewed and edited all later versions of the manuscript.

Correspondence to Brittany I. Davidson.

This work was part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC grant ref: EP/W522090/1) as a PhD studentship to D.W. as an EPSRC iCASE with B.I.D. and J.F.R. This work also was part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC grant ref: EP/SO22465/1) as a PhD studentship to E.G. via the CDT in Cybersecurity TIPS-at-scale. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Nature Human Behaviour thanks Cornelius Puschmann, Amelia Acker and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Davidson, B.I., Wischerath, D., Racek, D. et al. Platform-controlled social media APIs threaten open science. Nat Hum Behav 7, 2054–2057 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01750-2

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Published: 02 November 2023

Issue Date: December 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01750-2

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