by Elizabeth Salazar
The Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) is launching a program to offer Harvard faculty exceptional help in providing extraordinary evidence for their extraordinary claims. With this new program–called Extraordinary Claims, Extraordinary Evidence (ECEE)–IQSS aims to catalyze rigorous research that will move the dominant position of the scientific community the farthest distance.
Many extraordinary claims are explicitly contrarian positions that, if true, demonstrate the folly of unrecognized, incorrect, or unsupported assumptions in, or conclusions of, existing research. Others are about subjects not actively being studied and which scholars incorrectly assume we understand or think are not worth investigating, but with the potential to effect a major change in the dominant view of a field.
Researchers have strong career incentives either to challenge widely accepted or dominant views of empirical claims, or to investigate subjects that are not actively studied. However, though such incentives may come with the potential of greater reward for successful outcomes, they also carry the risk of greater penalty if the researcher fails to defend an extreme view. Through ECEE, IQSS intends to support scholars in advancing scientific understanding through high-risk research.
Through ECEE, a small number of selected awardees will receive supercharged support from IQSS research infrastructure and personnel to develop their project. Examples of support can include:
- Full-time assistance from a survey research expert or computer programmer;
- Dedicated IQSS data science services for research design and data visualization;
- Setup assistance in running high performance computing resources;
- Access to extensive data curation services and leveraging the Dataverse platform; or
- Dedicated access to IQSS incubation services.
Eligibility for awards extends to Harvard ladder faculty (individuals or groups) conducting research with a social science component (i.e., any research focused on human beings holistically, rather than on specific anatomical or physiological systems). Awardees must participate in an extension of the popular IQSS Peer Pre-Review Program, which speeds the research (and journal review) process and helps scholars engage with arm’s length, and possibly contrarian views, about their assumptions and analysis methods.
An ad hoc committee with experts in the relevant field will review the most promising proposals and recommend awardees to IQSS leadership for ultimate selection. A subset of these will be chosen for meetings with IQSS staff to align research needs with available resources.
If you are interested in learning more about the Extraordinary Claims, Extraordinary Evidence program and its application process, please visit the ECEE page at iq.harvard.edu/ecee.
For additional administrative questions about the program contact Pat McVay, IQSS Director of Business Operations; for data science services questions contact Steve Worthington, Data Science Services Manager.
