What is NOT a significant obstacle to social science research on "Big Data"?
A) Social media companies restrict the access to their data, creating a "digital divide" separating social scientists with wide access from those who lack such access.
B) Software for analyzing "Big Data" is proprietary and prohibitive in cost.
C) Many sources of "Big Data" lack demographic data on age, gender, income, and other essential control variables ordinarily important in social science research.
D) Sound research design commonly requires random sampling or enumeration (data on all the cases), neither of which characterize most "Big Data".

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

is correct. Data science is a stronghold of open source, free software tools in R, Python, and other platforms, though it is true that expensive proprietary software also exists. Answers A, C, and D are all true obstacles for the social scientist wishing to use "Big Data".

What Is NOT a Significant Obstacle to Social Science Research