We are the facility within Queensland University of Technology's Research Infrastructure (QUT RI) portfolio dedicated to supporting research into public discourse on important societal issues. Our unique fusion of computational/data expertise and understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) allows us to provide cost-effective and bespoke research project support. Our team also bolsters grant applications and showcases project capabilities, giving your project a competitive advantage.
The computational and governance methods required to use and manage human-related data can be daunting to researchers, especially those in the Business, HASS and Health disciplines. We streamline this process for researchers, providing ready-to-analyse data, analytics deliverables, and guidance on digital data practices and methodology.
Simply put, we tackle data challenges so researchers can focus on their research challenges.
The QUT Digital Observatory collaborates with researchers and organisations to provide support for their research projects that involve the use of data from the web. Click on the headings below to find out more about the services we provide.
Design and implement project-specific research data workflows
Assist with collecting, storing, and tidying data from the web
Build and maintain open-source and bespoke software to aid with data collection
Assist with data tidying, pre-processing, analysis, and visualisation
Assist with text analysis methods including topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and network analysis
Build and maintain open-source and bespoke software to aid with data processing and analysis
Provide curated data from our databanks including the Australian Twittersphere and NewsTalk
Provide guidance and advice on data governance associated with human-related data from the web (e.g. reviews, comments, forums, social media data)
The Digital Observatory collaborates with researchers and organisations to determine their data and analytical requirements, allowing them to focus on their analysis and interpretation. The Digital Observatory is committed to keeping costs low for researchers by only charging on a cost-recovery basis. If you're a researcher embarking on a project and are considering the potential support that the Digital Observatory could provide, we're here to help. Read our Researchers' Guide to Working with the Digital Observatory to find out more. You can also read our case studies to see how we've helped other researchers.
The Digital Observatory (DO) has been collaborative and proactive in meeting with the Office of Research Ethics and Integrity (OREI) to discuss topics concerning the collection and analysis of human data from social media platforms and have provided advice for data specific queries from researchers, that have arisen during study design and ethics application preparation.
This is amazing! This has incredible applications for us here in DMRC, and indeed for so many communication and media scholars. As you're surely aware, and no doubt spurred you in developing this, the current Python and other libraries and approaches (GDELT, etc.) are incredibly limited in our neck of the woods, and in what they capture. I can think of at least a dozen students, postdocs and other faculty here who have immediate need for a support tool like this.
Everyone at the Digital Observatory is always so proactive and helpful when I cross paths with them. It's such a pleasure to work with you.
The Digital Observatory were a pleasure to work with. Very helpful in scoping out my research project and responsive to my needs, ensuring the research question I was exploring was answered. For any researcher considering using social media data, I would recommend getting in contact.
