Online Seminar Talk

Methodological Monotheism Across Fields of Science in Contemporary Quantitative Research

Andres F. Castro Torres
Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography, January 11, 2023

Andres F. Castro Torres from the Center for Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona used bibliometric data from the Web of Science to conduct a large-scale and cross-disciplinary assessment of the prevalence of linear-model-based research from 1990 to 2022.

Abstract

The importance of research teams' diversity for the progress of science is highlighted extensively. Despite the seemingly hegemonic role of hypothesis testing in modern quantitative research, little attention has been devoted to the diversity of quantitative methods, epitomized by the linear model framework of analysis. Using bibliometric data from the Web of Science, we conduct a large-scale and cross-disciplinary assessment of the prevalence of linear-model-based research from 1990 to 2022. In absolute terms, linear models are widely used across all fields of science.

In relative terms, three patterns suggest linear models are hegemonic among Social Sciences. First, there is a high and growing prevalence of linear-model-based research. Second, global patterns of linear-model-based research prevalence align with global inequalities in knowledge production. Third, there was a citation premium to linear-model-based research until 2012 for articles' number of citations and for the entire period in terms of having at least one citation. Previous research suggests that the confluence of these patterns may be detrimental to the Social Sciences as it potentially marginalizes theories incompatible with the linear models' framework, lowers the diversity of narratives about social phenomena, and prevents innovative and path-breaking research, limiting the breadth of research.

Authors' biography

Andrés F. Castro Torres is a Colombian sociologist with a Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania (2019). His research focuses on social class and gender differences in family formation and dissolution trajectories, primarily in countries of the global South and among immigrants in the United States and Europe. He uses censuses, surveys, administrative records, and vital statistics to answer questions about how the people’s material living conditions throughout their life course associate with specific family and migration paths, and how these family and migration paths influence social class and gender disparities. He also researches global inequalities in knowledge production in social sciences.

https://ced.cat/directori/andres-felipe-castro-torres/

Co-author: Aliakbar Akbaritabar