Follow the User?!
Data Donation Studies for Collecting Digital Trace Data
About the workshop
💻 Method Workshop as part of the 7th COMPTEXT
📅 April 24th, 2025 (10 am to 1 pm)
📍 University of Vienna (Universitätsring 1, Room SR01)
Workshop led by:
Frieder Rodewald (University of Mannheim): frieder-rodewald.de
Valerie Hase (LMU Munich): valerie-hase.com
Part of the DFG project “Integrating Data Donations in Survey Infrastructure” (see project website)
Organization: COMPTEXT team, special shoutout 🙌 to Fabienne Lind, Veronika Ebner, & Marvin Stecker (and the rest of the team at the University of Vienna)
Timetable
| ⏰ 10:00–10:20 | Session 1️⃣: Welcome & Intro to Digital Traces |
| ⏰ 10:20–11:00 | Session 2️⃣: Data Donation Studies (Participant Perspective) |
| ⏰ 11:00–12:15 | Session 3️⃣: Data Donation Studies (Researcher Perspective) |
| ⏰ 12:15–13:00 | Session 4️⃣: Bias & Outro |
Workshop materials
Session 1️⃣: Welcome & Intro to Digital Traces
Session 2️⃣: Data Donation Studies (Participant Perspective)
Session 3️⃣: Data Donation Studies (Researcher Perspective)
Session 4️⃣: Bias & Outro
Further tutorials
- Bail, C. A. (2020). What is digital trace data? Link
- Jaursch, J., & Lorenz-Spleen, P.(2024). Researcher access to platform data under the DSA: Questions and answers. Link
- Kohne, J. (2025). Data donation with WhatsR. Link
Further literature
- Boeschoten, L., Ausloos, J., Möller, J. E., Araujo, T., & Oberski, D. L. (2022). A framework for privacy preserving digital trace data collection through data donation. Computational Communication Research, 4(2), 388–423. Link
- Carrière, T.C., Boeschoten, L., Struminskaya, B. et al. Best practices for studies using digital data donation. Quality & Quantity, 59, 389-–412 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-024-01983-x
- Haim, M., Leiner, D., & Hase, V. (2023). Integrating Data Donations into Online Surveys. Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 71(1–2), 130–137. Link
- Keusch, F., & Kreuter, F. (2021). Digital trace data. In U. Engel, A. Quan-Haase, S. X. Liu, & L. Lyberg, Handbook of Computational Social Science, Volume 1 (1st Edition, p. 100–118). Routledge. Link
- Lazer, D., Hargittai, E., Freelon, D., Gonzalez-Bailon, S., Munger, K., Ognyanova, K., & Radford, J. (2021). Meaningful measures of human society in the twenty-first century. Nature, 595(7866), 189–196. Link
- Stier, S., Breuer, J., Siegers, P., & Thorson, K. (2020). Integrating Survey Data and Digital Trace Data: Key Issues in Developing an Emerging Field. Social Science Computer Review, 38(5), 503–516. Link