Centre for Advanced
Social Science Methods
CASSM produces frontier research in advanced social science methods, from experimentation and causal inference to computational analysis and AI — and builds the infrastructure to make it count: seminars and workshops, labs, data pipelines, shared code standards, and training programmes. Based at Oxford, connected worldwide, we help social scientists answer the hardest questions of our time.
Developing advanced methods for the social sciences
CASSM's research programme tackles the methodological problems that hold social science back, from designing experiments that scale to building innovative computational tools that illuminate pressing social problems. Our advanced research methods span seven Oxford departments and colleges, so breakthroughs in one discipline reach scholars in all the others.
Our research focuses on large-scale experimentation, computational text and network analysis, causal inference, machine learning, and large language models. We apply these to some of the hardest questions in the social sciences, from AI and inequality to policy design, environmental change, and disinformation — generating both substantive findings and methodological advances that other researchers can build on.
This cross-disciplinary model is central to how we work. Experimental techniques developed in economics reach political science, computational tools built for sociology inform legal scholarship, and shared standards raise quality across the board. The seminars, labs, training programmes, and code pipelines we build exist to support this research and make it usable beyond Oxford.
Social science methods for pressing questions
CASSM develops and applies social science methods in areas where existing approaches have reached their limits — and where better methods stand to change what can be known.
AI, Growth & Inequality
Methods for studying how artificial intelligence reshapes economic inequality and polarisation - computational tools, causal inference, and adaptive survey designs.
Large-scale Policy Interventions
Experimental and quasi-experimental methods for government policy evaluation - rigorous designs that generate credible, policy-relevant evidence at scale.
Real-time Environmental Monitoring
Methods for always-on data streams - analytical tools that measure environmental change and behavioural response at scale and in near real time.
Disinformation & Online Networks
Large language models and network analysis for studying disinformation structure and spread - frameworks making large-scale text data legible to researchers.
Our reach
For Researchers
Frontier methods research alongside world-class labs, computational infrastructure, and collaborative projects. Seminars, workshops, and active co-authorship that accelerate your work.
For Students & ECRs
Hands-on training in the methods increasingly expected in academia, policy, and industry, from experimental design and causal inference to coding and computational analysis.
For Policy & Society
Better methods mean evidence that policymakers and practitioners can trust and act on. CASSM's research closes the gap between what decision-makers need to know and what existing methods can credibly tell them.
For the Global Research Community
A model for how methodological excellence can be institutionalised and shared. Open training, reusable infrastructure, and collaborative frameworks that benefit scholars worldwide.
Establishing CASSM as a leading centre for methods research
We aim to be the place where the next generation of social science methods is developed, tested, and shared — setting standards that researchers and institutions worldwide can build on.
- I Produce frontier methods research - developing new experimental designs, computational techniques, and analytical frameworks that advance the state of the art.
- II Build international research networks - connecting scholars across disciplines and countries to develop, test, and refine methods on shared challenges.
- III Share infrastructure globally - making our tools, training, and collaborative frameworks available to social scientists worldwide.
- IV Connect research to impact - ensuring methodological advances translate into evidence that reaches policymakers, practitioners, and organisations.
- V Train the next generation - equipping scholars with the methods to drive innovation in their own institutions and communities.
People
Dissemination
CASSM researchers engage with media and policymakers to ensure social science methods shape how key questions are debated.
The Promise of AI
What is artificial intelligence actually for? This episode looks beyond the headlines to assess capabilities, limits, and economic impact - drawing on researchers from Oxford, MIT, and Penn.
Listen on BBC Sounds →
Authenticity
What does it mean to be authentic in an age of AI and digital media? Drawing on art history, political communication, and psychology - asking whether imperfection remains central to the genuinely human.
Listen on BBC Sounds →
The Politics of AI: Citizen Perceptions, Preferences, and Priorities
A workshop asking what AI means for politics when we start from the public's point of view - exploring exposure, vulnerability, governance preferences, and how political identity shapes trust in AI systems. Contributors from the Financial Times and Google DeepMind.
Training in Advanced Research Methods
CASSM is developing training programmes for researchers at all career stages, from doctoral students encountering advanced methods for the first time to senior scholars extending their methodological toolkit.
Methods Workshops
Intensive short-format workshops on specific methods: causal inference, computational text analysis, experimental design, and more.
Coding & Data Analysis
Practical training in Python, R, and oTree for social scientists. Data wrangling, analysis pipelines, and the tools expected in academic and policy roles.
Experimental Design
Designing and running rigorous experiments, from lab studies to large-scale online experiments and field trials. Pre-registration, power analysis, and ethical practice.
Summer Schools & Intensives
Multi-day residential and online programmes bringing scholars from across institutions together to develop shared methods expertise and build research networks.
Interested in being notified when training is available? Get in touch →
Support CASSM
How social scientists collect evidence, draw comparisons, and identify causes determines what they can credibly claim. CASSM was founded on the conviction that methodology deserves the same serious investment as the substantive questions it enables.
We are in our early years, and philanthropic support can be genuinely foundational. Donations that create researcher posts, seed new projects, or sustain our training and outreach will shape the centre's trajectory for a generation.
We welcome conversations with individuals, foundations, and organisations who share our commitment to rigorous, independent social science. Areas of particular interest include:
- Endowing or co-funding researcher posts and postdoctoral fellowships
- Sponsoring training programmes and workshops open to the broader research community
- Supporting public engagement and policy translation work that connects methodological advances to the policy debates that depend on them
- Funding research projects that develop new methods and apply them to substantive questions across disciplines
