Professor Robert Ackland
Research interests
- Network science
- Web science
- Social network analysis
- Index number theory
- International comparisons of income and poverty
Biography
Robert works at the intersection of empirical social science and computer science, developing new approaches (involving information retrieval, data visualisation and social network analysis) for studying networks on the World Wide Web. He has been a chief investigator on five Australian Research Council grants and under a 2005 ARC Special Research Initiative (e-Research Support) grant, he established the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks project. Robert has co-organised symposia focusing on e-Social Science (2004) and the social impact of nanotechnology (2006) and in 2007, he spent six months at the Oxford Internet Institute under a UK National Centre for e-Social Science Visiting Fellowship and a University of Oxford James Martin Visiting Fellowship.
Robert has degrees in economics from the University of Melbourne, Yale University (where he was a Fulbright Scholar) and the ANU, where he completed his PhD in economics (on index number theory and international comparisons of income) in 2001. Prior to commencing his PhD, Robert gained extensive experience in applied economic and statistical analysis in the government and non-government sectors. From 1991-1993, he worked as a senior researcher in the Bureau of Immigration Research (Commonwealth Department of Immigration). He worked as a World Bank consultant (based in Washington DC, 1995-1997) in the area of poverty analysis and has also consulted on AusAID and Asian Development Bank projects in this area. Robert teaches courses on the social science of the Internet and online research method in the Master of Social Research and his book Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age was published by SAGE in 2013.
Researcher's projects
- I lead the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks project (http://vosonlab.net), which is known internationally for the VOSON software for hyperlink network analysis and other related research
- My book with SAGE Publications titled Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age (http://robertackland.info/websocialscience) was published in June 2013
- I conduct research at the intersection of network science and web science. My research into online social and organisational networks has been published in journals such as Social Networks, Journal of Social Structure, Computational Economics and Social Science Computer Review.
- I conduct research into index numbers in the context of cross-country comparisons of income and poverty. This research has been published in the Review of Economics and Statistics.
Available student projects
I am interested in supervising PhD students working on social science research topics at the intersection of social science, network science and computer science. Please note that PhD studetns for whom I am panel chair or primary supervisor will typically have honours or postgraduate training in social science (e.g. sociology, political science, communication, economics). Possible areas include:
- identifying social influence/social selection in social media networks
- misinformation, coordinated behaviour, political deliberation on social media
- index number theory applied to online networks
- statistical social network analysis applied to online networks
- dynamic analysis of social media networks
Current student projects
PhD candidates:
- Nicholas Corbett (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - Algorithmic platforms and the alt-right: considering a new understanding of online extremism. My role: panel chair and primary supervisor.
- Bryan Gertzel (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - The role and impact of social bots: a computational social science and software design perspective. My role: panel chair and primary supervisor.
- Sidiq Madaj (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - Data Sovereignty:The Web of Narratives from Non-State Actors. My role: panel chair and primary supervisor.
- Mikayla Novak (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - Tweeting hydrogen: An Exploratory Study of Australian Twitter Communications about Hydrogen Decarbonisation. My role: panel chair and primary supervisor.
- Simon Copland (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - The ‘manosphere’ on Reddit. My role: associate supervisor.
- Robert Fleet (PhD candidate, Centre for Digital Humanities Research) - Researching organised violence using online video game data. My role: associate supervisor.
- Miguel Lattz (PhD candidate, School of Sociology) - Chileans’ anger at inequality boils over. My role: panel chair and associate supervisor.
- Yuanyuan Shang (PhD candidate, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science) - Social Media and Online Public Deliberation: A Case Study of Climate Change Communication on Twitter. My role: associate supervisor.
Past student projects
PhD students:
- Mahin Raissi (PhD, Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute [now School of Demography], ANU, 2016) - Online social networks and subjective well-being of older Australians. My role: panel chair and primary supervisor.
- Ian Wood (PhD, Research School of Computer Science, ANU, 2016) - Watching the unobservable - On measuring social dynamics of online social media. My role: joint primary supervisor.
- Pilar Rioseco (PhD, Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute [now School of Demography], ANU, 2015) - The role of social connectedness in the process of retirement in Australia. My role: associate supervisor.
- Minkyoung Kim (PhD, Research School of Computer Science, ANU, 2014) - Dynamics of information diffusion. My role: associate supervisor.
- Harsh Taneja (PhD, School of Communication, Northwestern University, 2014) - Explaining global audience flow on the World Wide Web. My role: committee member.
Masters students:
- Rizwan Saeed (Master of Social Research - Advanced), ANU, 2019). Twitter and development of social capital (in Pakistan): A gender perspective. My role: thesis supervisor.
- Sneha Vaidya (Master of Social Research - Advanced, ANU, 2019). Social and political engagement on Twitter in India. My role: thesis supervisor.
- Kyosuke Tanaka (Master of Social Research - Advanced, ANU, 2015) - Self-disclosure and homophily in online social networks. My role: thesis supervisor.
- Cecilie Einarson Pérez (Master of Social Research - Advanced, ANU, 2014) - Tweeting the frame: frames and fields in the age of the networked individual. My role: thesis supervisor.
Honours students:
- Lauren Northcote (Honours in Sociology, ANU, 2021) - The Memes that Moved the Market: Understanding meme propagation in the GameStop short squeeze through the revival of Gabriel Tarde’s hundred-year-old theories. My role: thesis supervisor.
- Karl Gwynn (Honours in Sociology, ANU, 2019) - Incivility in the Australian Political Twittersphere. My role: thesis supervisor.
Publications
- Halpin, D, Fraussen, B & Ackland, R 2021, 'Which Audiences Engage With Advocacy Groups on Twitter? Explaining the Online Engagement of Elite, Peer, and Mass Audiences With Advocacy Groups', Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 842-865.
- Raissi, M & Ackland, R 2021, 'Important relationships in a multilevel world: The role of network structure in explaining closeness of relationships and access to resources in later life', Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, vol. 20, no. 10.
- Ackland, R, Jensen, M & O'Neil, M 2020, 'Internet Research Agency Campaigns in the Australian Twittersphere', in (ed.), Australian Perspectives on Misinformation, News & Media Research Centre, Canberra, pp. 24-28.
- Ackland, R & Gwynn, K 2020, 'Truth and the dynamics of news diffusion on Twitter', in Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela E. Jaffé, Eryn J. Newman, Norbert Schwarz (ed.), The Psychology of Fake News: Sharing, Accepting and Correcting Misinformation, Routledge, London, London, pp. 27-46.
- O'Neil, M & Ackland, R 2020, 'Risk issue adoption in an online social movement field', Information, Communication and Society, vol. 23, no. 13, pp. 1854-1873.
- Robertson, C, Dutton, W, Ackland, R et al 2019, 'The democratic role of social media in political debates: The use of Twitter in the first televised US presidential debate of 2016', Journal of Information Technology & Politics, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 105-118.
- Ackland, R & Halpin, D 2019, 'Change or stability in the structure of interest group networks? Evidence from Scottish Public Policy Consultations', Journal of Public Policy, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 267-294.
- Ackland, R, O'Neil, M & Park, S 2019, 'Engagement with news on Twitter: insights from Australia and Korea', Asian Journal of Communication, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 235-251.
- O'Neil, M & Ackland, R 2019, 'Online Field Theory', in M Allen, J Hunsinger & L Klastrup (ed.), Second International Handbook of Internet Research, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 445-467.
- Ackland, R 2018, 'Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON) Software for Collecting and Analysing Online Networks (2004-2018)'.
- Muhle, F, Ackland, R & Graham, T 2018, 'Socialbots in politischen Online-Konversationen: Eine (uberschatzte) Gefahr fur demokratische Willensbildung im Internet? [Socialbots in online political conversations: An (overestimated) danger for democratic opinion-formation on the Internet?]', Zeitschrift fuer Parlamentsfragen (ZParl Journal for Parliamentary Issues), vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 618-638.
- Rizoiu, M-A, Graham, T, Zhang, R, Zhang, Y, Ackland, R, Xie, L 2018, 'DEBATENIGHT: The role and influence of socialbots on twitter during the first 2016 U.S. presidential debate', 12th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2018, AAAI Press, California, USA, pp. 300-309.
- Ackland, R & Evans, A 2017, 'Using the web to examine the evolution of the abortion debate in Australia, 2005-2015', in Niels Brugger and Ralph Schroeder (ed.), The Web as History, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, pp. 159-189pp.
- Ackland, R 2017, 'Book Review: Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy', Economic Record, vol. 93, no. 301, pp. 334-336.
- Graham, T & Ackland, R 2017, 'Do Socialbots Dream of Popping the Filter Bubble? The role of socialbots in promoting participatory democracy in social media', in Gehl, Robert; Bakardjieva, Maria. (ed.), Socialbots and Their Friends: Digital Media and the Automation of Sociality, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York and Abingdon, pp. 187-206pp.
- Ackland, R & Zhu, J 2015, 'Social Network Analysis', in Peter Halfpenny and Rob Procter (ed.), Innovations in Digital Research Methods, SAGE Publications, London, pp. 221-244.
- Ackland, R & Tanaka, K 2015, Development Impact of Social Media: Background paper prepared for the World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends.
- Graham, T & Ackland, R 2015, 'SocialMediaLab: Tools for Collecting Social Media Data and Generating Networks for Analysis'.
- Ackland, R 2014, 'Review: The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy, by Martin Peitz and Joel Waldfogel (eds)', Economic Record, vol. 90, no. 289, pp. 249-251.
- Henman, P, Ackland, R & Graham, T 2014, 'Community Structure in e-Government Hyperlink Networks', European Conference on eGovernment (ECEG 2014), ed. Alexandru Ionas, Academic Conferences and Publishing International and Academic Books ACPI_AB, Reading, UK, pp. 135-143.
- Henman, P, Ackland, R & Graham, T 2014, 'Networks of Communities and Communities of Networks in Online Government', Electronic Journal of e-Government, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 117-131.
- Wu, L & Ackland, R 2014, 'How Web 1.0 fails: The mismatch between hyperlinks and clickstreams', Social Network Analysis and Mining, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-7.
- Henman, P, Ackland, R & Graham, T 2014, 'Networks of communities and communities of networks in online government', Electronic Journal of e-Government, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 117-130.
- Ackland, R & Shorish, J 2014, 'Political homophily on the Web', in Marta Cantijoch, Rachel Gibson and Stephen Ward (ed.), Analysing Social Media Data and Web Networks, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Basingstoke, pp. 25-46.
- Henman, P, Ackland, R & Graham, T 2014, 'Community structure in e-Government hyperlink networks', European Conference on eGovernment (ECEG 2014), ed. Alexandru Ionas, Academic Conferences and Publishing International and Academic Books ACPI_AB, Reading, UK.
- Ackland, R, Dowrick, S & Freyens, B 2013, 'Measuring global poverty: Why PPP methods matter', Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 95, no. 3, 813-824.
- Ackland, R 2013, Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age, London: Sage Publications.
- Ackland, R & Gibson, R 2013, 'Hyperlinks and networked communication: A comparative study of political parties online', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 231-244.
- Ackland, R 2012, Social media and national security: A computational social scientist's perspective.
- Ackland, R & Wu, L 2011, 'Revealed Preferences in Networks', Workshop on information in networks, New York University, New York USA, pp. 1-5pp.
- Ackland, R & O'Neil, M 2011, 'Online collective identity: The case of the environmental movement', Social Networks, vol. 33, no. 3. pp.177-190.
- Ackland, R 2011, 'WWW Hyperlink Networks', in Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman and Marc Smith (ed.), Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World, Morgan Kauffman Publishers, Burlington, MA, pp. 181-199.
- Lusher, D & Ackland, R 2011, 'A relational hyperlink analysis of an online social movement', Journal of Social Structure, vol. 11.
- Ackland, R 2010, ''Superstar' concentrations of scientific output and recognition', in William H. Dutton and Paul W. Jeffreys (ed.), World Wide Research: Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 48-50.
- Ackland, R, Gibson, R, Lusoli, W, & Ward, S 2010, 'Engaging with the public? Assessing the online presence and communication practices of the nanotechnology industry', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 443-465.
- den Besten, M, Ackland, R, Fry, J & Schroeder, R 2010, 'Collaboration Among e-Research Projects in the UK: An Analysis Using Online Research Methods', in Murugan Anandarajan and Asokan Anandarajan (ed.), e-Research Collaboration: Theory, Techniques and Challenges, Springer, Berlin, pp. 153-166.
- Ackland, R & Shorish, J 2009, 'Network Formation in the Political Blogosphere: An Application of Agent Based Simulation and e-Research Tools', Computational Economics, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 383-398.
- Ackland, R 2009, 'Social Network Services as Data Sources and Platforms for e-Researching Social Networks', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 481-492.
- Ackland, R 2008, 'Incorporating Minimum Subsistence Consumption into International Comparisons of Real Income', Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 90, no. 4, pp. 702-712.
- Ackland, R & Antony, J 2007, 'Developing e-Research Tools for the Analysis of Large-Scale Web Crawl Data', International conference on e-Social Science 2007, ed. Conference Program Committee, National Centre for e-Social Science, USA, pp. 1-9.
- Ackland, R, Spink, A & Bailey, P 2007, 'Characteristics of .au Websites: An Analysis of Large-Scale Web Crawl Data from 2005', Australasian World Wide Web Conference (AusWeb 2007), ed. Conference Program Committee, Southern Cross University, Brisbane Australia, pp. 1-.
- Ackland, R, O'Neil, M, Bimber, B et al. 2006, 'New methods for studying online environmental - activist networks', International Sunbelt Social Network Conference 2006, ed. International Network for Social Network Analysis, International Network for Social Network Analysis, unknown, pp. 1-39.
- Ackland, R, O'Neil, M, Standish, R et al. 2006, 'VOSON: A web services approach for facilitating research into online networks', International Conference on e-Social Science 2006, ed. The National Centre for e-Social Science, National Centre for e-Social Science, Manchester, pp. 1-12.
- O'Neil, M & Ackland, R 2006, 'The structural role of nanotechnology-opposition in online environmental activist networks', International Sunbelt Social Network Conference 2006, ed. International Network for Social Network Analysis, International Network for Social Network Analysis, unknown, pp. 1-32.
- Ackland, R & Gray, E 2005, 'What can potential migrants find out about Australia from the WWW?', People and Place, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 12-22.
- Ackland, R 2005, 'Mapping the U.S. political blogsphere: Are conservative bloggers more prominent?', BlogTalk Downunder 2005, 19-22 May, Sydney, pp. 1-12.
- Ackland, R 2005, 'Virtual Observatory for the study of online networks (VOSON) - Progress and Plans', International Conference on e-Social Science 2005, University of Manchester, 22-24 June 2005, pp. 1-11.
- Ackland, R & Gibson, R 2004, 'Mapping Political Party Networks on the WWW', Australian Electronic Governance Conference 2004, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 1-33.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Unbiased Bots That Build Bridges (U3B): Technical Systems that Support Deliberation and Diversity as a Chance for Political Discourse (Secondary Investigator)
- ANU Climate Change PhD Supplementary Scholarship (Secondary Investigator)
- Socialbots as political actors? Autonomous communication technologies as tools and objects for digital sociology. (Primary Investigator)
- Understanding online attention and user-generated content creation: An information consumption and production perspective (Primary Investigator)
- Strengthen Australia-China cooperation in computational social science and research into information diffusion in social media (Secondary Investigator)
- The Institutional Structure of e-government: a cross-policy, cross country comparison (Secondary Investigator)
- The role of online social networks in successful ageing: benefitting from 'who you know' at older ages (Secondary Investigator)