SynthesisPloS one2020
Algorithmic bias in social research: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- CORA: An Open-Source Software Tool for Combinational Regularity Analysis.Social science computer review · 2025Article
- Fewer Procedures, More Reflection: A Rejoinder to Duşa and Marx.Field methods · 2024Article
- Case-to-factor Ratios and Model Specification in Qualitative Comparative Analysis.Field methods · 2024Article
- Combinational Regularity Analysis (CORA) - a new method for uncovering complex causation in medical and health research.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Both the natural and the social sciences are currently facing a deep "reproducibility crisis". Two important factors in this crisis have been the selective reporting of results and methodological problems. In this article, we examine a fusion of these two factors. More specifically, we demonstrate that the uncritical import of Boolean optimization algorithms from electrical engineering into some areas of the social sciences in the late 1980s has induced algorithmic bias on a considerable scale over the last quarter century. Potentially affected are all studies that have used a method nowadays known as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Drawing on replication material for 215 peer-reviewed QCA articles from across 109 high-profile management, political science and sociology journals, we estimate the extent this problem has assumed in empirical work. Our results suggest that one in three studies is affected, one in ten severely so. More generally, our article cautions scientists against letting methods and algorithms travel too easily across disparate disciplines without sufficient prior evaluation of their suitability for the context in hand.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.