Enlisting the Work of Historians: Pitfalls and Principles

• In Event: Tackling Causality and Causal Inference across the Social Sciences

Abstract

When social scientists enlist secondary histoical sources, they face two standard problems of selection bias: confirmation bias and convenience sampling. This paper describes these challenges and illustrates how they have weakened most-cited work. Moreover, we provide a series of recommendations for how to solve or at least mitigate these challenges. First, we warn about projecting definitions that fit contemporary phenomena back in time without reflecting on their historical fit. We make a general plea for avoiding composite and thick concepts in historical research, especially if it is comparative, because they are less likely to travel well and more difficult to operationalize. Second, we present a criterial framework for how social scientists can reduce bias when enlisting historical evidence. The framework emphasizes the importance of securing a conceptual overlap with the work of historians, taking the theoretical vantage points of historical sources into consideration, and making sure to enlist the most relevant and updated evidence.

Authors

• Svend-Erik Skaaning, Aarhus University

• Jorgen Moller, University of Aarhus