While our interviewees acknowledge challenges posed by the emergence of big data approaches, they reassert the importance of fundamental tenets of social science research such as establishing causality and drawing on existing theory. They also discussed more pragmatic issues, such as collaboration between researchers from different fields, and the utility of mixed methods.

Source : Causation, Correlation, and Big Data in Social Science Research – Cowls – 2015 – Policy & Internet – Wiley Online Library