Eisner, M;
Fearon, P;
(2021)
Pitfalls of Using Data Portals as Sources for Psychological Research: The Example of Cross-National Homicide Data.
Psychological Science
, 32
(6)
pp. 863-865.
10.1177/0956797621989967.
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Abstract
The past decades have seen an extraordinary growth in the number of large, open-access portals making data available for cross-national comparative social-science research and a corresponding increase in the use of such data. In particular, international organizations such as The World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) provide users with comprehensive indicator systems on, for example, the economy, the environment, education, health, child well-being, gender inequality, and conflict and violence. If adequately used, data retrieved from such portals can help researchers to address important research questions. However, they can also lead to bad science if researchers fail to pay close attention to how the data were generated. We illustrate this risk using a real-life example, namely data on cross-national homicide rates.
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