"The commission" is the "trusted third party mentioned above”  In the case of the Facebook partnership, the commission is composed of (a) Gary King and Nathaniel Persily as co-chairs, acting like editors of a scholarly journal and (b) other members, acting like members of the journal's editorial board, but organized into methodological, substantive and regional committees. Different subsets of members (as needed, cross-cutting the committee structure) sign one of three levels of confidentiality agreement, with only the most restrictive of which has privileged access to...

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Timing is up to the researchers. They have plenty of incentive to get rigorous research written and published as soon as possible. In addition, we will be giving grants to multiple researchers analyzing the same data, and so they have plenty of incentives to work and publish quickly. Our peer pre-review services are also designed to increase speed and quality.  As always in science, 100 percent of the credit goes to... Read more about How long will researchers have to publish their results?

The peer pre-review service is in its early stages. Our aim is to make it valuable and always improving so that funded researchers will actively want to use it. Read more about Are there any requirements that researchers use the Peer Pre-Review process?

The academic researchers chosen for Social Science One projects will have full freedom to publish their findings, without review by the companies whose data they study. Academics will be prohibited from patenting research findings. All papers that come out of this research process must be made available publicly and posted on the SocialScience.One website. All researchers commit to follow the replication standard and deposit their computer code,... Read more about Are the researchers precluded from profiting in any way from their findings – whether as consultants or as authors of non-academic articles or books? How are their activities going to be monitored to ensure they don’t break the rules?

All information will be posted at SocialScience.One, with notifications on Twitter and Facebook. Researchers can also sign up for our ... Read more about How will researchers find out about opportunities to participate in the Facebook partnership?

Although the partnership made possible by Social Science One is Facebook's largest engagement with the academic community, the company has long had other ways of interacting with academics. Most of these are for purposes more closely related to the company’s immediate goals. You can learn more on Facebook’s website.

Facebook and eight ideologically diverse nonprofit foundations together chose Gary King and Nathaniel Persily as co-chairs and then the co-chairs chose other members. King and Persily developed the model that led to this partnership, and each have long-standing reputations as nonpartisan, distinguished academic researchers. Although the nonprofit foundations are no longer involved in the project, King and Persily... Read more about How were members of the commission chosen?

Facebook is committed to partnering with Social Science One to further the broader goal of studying the impact of social media on elections and democracy. Facebook is building a dedicated internal team to work with the commission, and academic researchers we approve, to prepare privacy-protected datasets and analytical tools with high security, including full auditing of what any one researcher does.

Facebook will pay for its own expenses, including the cost of making data available, the cost of securing that data, and the Facebook staff necessary for this...

Read more about Is Social Science One independent of Facebook?

The organization now called Social Science One was first announced on April 9, 2018 when “A New Model of Industry-Academic Partnerships” was released. Our effort has been referred to by these and other names by Facebook and us all along the way.  Given the scope of our work at hand, which extends beyond the role that Facebook and social media plays in elections, we...

Read more about Where's the Election Commission, the Election Research Commission, the Research Commission, the thing Facebook is doing with academics, etc.?

Social Science One is not affiliated with Crimson Hexagon. Gary King, co-chair of Social Science One, co-founded Crimson Hexagon, a social media analytics company, based on his research at Harvard University. Previously, he was chair of the Crimson Hexagon Board of Directors, but the company and Brandwatch have now merged (the new company has taken the name Brandwatch) and he is a Board Observer at the new company. Facebook recently looked into Crimson Hexagon’s social media data collection practices and customers, found that they adhere to all of Facebook’s policies, and still regularly work... Read more about Is Social Science One related to Crimson Hexagon?