Cortext, research infrastructure for the social sciences and humanities

At Cortext, our goal is to empower researchers in the social sciences and humanities by promoting advanced qualitative-quantitative mixed methods. Our primary focus is on studies about the dynamics of science, technology and innovation, and about the roles of knowledge and expertise in societies.

We understand the move towards digital humanities and computational methods not as addressing a technological gap for the social sciences, but rather as entailing entirely new assemblages between its disciplines and those of modern statistics and computer sciences. We work to tackle ever more complex research problems and deal with the profusion of new and diverse sources of information without losing sight of the situatedness and reflexivity required of studies of human societies.

Cortext is hosted by the LISIS research unit at Gustave Eiffel University, and was launched by French institutes IFRIS and INRAE, receiving their continued support.

@conference{barbier2014sociosemantic,
title = {Socio-semantic dynamics for digital humanities: Methodology and epistemology of large textual corpora analysis},
author = {Marc Barbier and Jean-Philippe Cointet},
url = {https://easst.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/easst2014.pdf},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
abstract = {Until recent time, the description, light-modeling and interpretation of socio-cognitive dynamics of science-society relations and social media relationships required a constructivist approach, involving collecting, reading, classifying and interpreting tasks performed by scholars examining sets of digital data (texts, archives, structured databases, websites, blogs, etc.). The growing mass of data produced in the so-called Knowledge Society owes a lot to the acceleration and profusion of digital tools that are now widely used in different areas of human activities: work, culture, leisure, political expression, etc. Social scientists now largely acknowledge that the various modes of interaction brought by new information and communication technologies are changing the very nature of micro-politics and the expression of the self. In our views the conditions for producing knowledge in social sciences and humanities more widely are changed too. New digital infrastructures specifically designed for social sciences and humanities make it possible to equip scientists with tools that enable them to tackle the complexity of heterogeneous textual corpora dynamics and to develop innovative analytical methodologies that will bring new insights and renewed capacities to investigate contemporary issues. The aim of this communication is to propose (1) to discuss some of the epistemic problems that surge from the use of digital platforms ambitioning the development of our capacities of enquiry of knowledge production in society; (2) to present the main developments and experience that had been led within the CorTexT plateform as well as their driving principles.},
howpublished = {Communication to the EASST Conference, Torun, Pologne},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}

@inbook{gibbon2014breast,
title = {From BRCA to BRCAness: tales of translational research},
author = {Pascale Bourret and Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio},
url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264556063_From_BRCA_to_BRCAness_tales_of_translational_research},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
booktitle = {Breast Cancer Gene Research and Medical Practices: Transnational Perspectives in the time of BRCA},
pages = {175-193},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {The discovery of the two inherited susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the mid-1990s created the possibility of predictive genetic testing and led to the establishment of specific medical programmes for those at high risk of developing breast cancer in the UK, US and Europe. In the intervening fifteen years, the medical institutionalisation of these knowledge-practices and accompanying medical techniques for assessing and managing risk have advanced at a rapid pace across multiple national and transnational arenas, whilst also themselves constituting a highly mobile and shifting terrain.

This unique edited collection brings together cross-disciplinary social science research to present a broad global comparative understanding of the implications of BRCA gene research and medical practices. With a focus on time-economies that unfold locally, nationally and transnationally (including in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, the UK and the USA), the essays in this volume facilitate a re-reading of concepts such as prevention, kinship and heredity, and together offer a unique, timely and comparative perspective on these developments.
The book provides a coherent structure for examining the diversity of practices and discourses that surround developments linked to BRCA genetics, and to the evolving field of genetics more broadly. It will be of interest to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, history of science, STS, public health and bioethics.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}

Presenting data collection methods at the OpenAlex user meeting

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Cortext workshop at EACH-USP and presentation at IME-USP

On May 2024, Ale Abdo was at the University of São Paulo invited by two departments to talk about different aspects of Cortext. On the 22nd, a workshop organized with professor Gisele Craveiro [...]

Cortext 2024: getting better all the time

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Long trends on twitter: intertemporal clusters combining hashtags and terms on Scientometrics, Altmetrics, Bibliometrics and Science Of Science

Long trends on twitter: inter-temporal clusters combining hashtags and terms, for all tweets on Scientometrics, Altmetrics, Bibliometrics and Science Of Science from Jan. 2017 to dec. 2021, on a [...]

A research infrastructure for the social sciences and humanities

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Presenting data collection methods at the OpenAlex user meeting

Cortext workshop at EACH-USP and presentation at IME-USP

Cortext 2024: getting better all the time

Long trends on twitter: intertemporal clusters combining hashtags and terms on Scientometrics, Altmetrics, Bibliometrics and Science Of Science

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