Computing in Sociology: Promise and Practice

Abstract

The state of a social science discipline should be judged by the vitality of its computing subfield, which is reflected in the quality of its software. Computing progress in sociology is evident in new software for theory, data management, and instruction. Constraints including inadequate resources, problematic software, and inadequate rewards for computing contributions prohibit most sociologists from using the most innovative software. Some specific recommendations are offered for improving sociology's computing community.Before the invention of computers, an academic discipline was evaluated primarily on the quality of its ideas, books, and articles. Now it is necessary to add computing contributions to this list of scholarship that must be evaluated. For a social science discipline such as sociology that depends extensively upon computing to conduct its research, both qualitative and quantitative, the stature of its computing subfield is a major facet of its scientific and scholarly productivity. Our exercise in assessing the stature of sociological computing is not an idle pastime, but a serious attempt to determine where sociology stands with respect to computing and how sociology can be advanced through improvements in its computing subculture.Our major dilemma is that few guidelines exist on how to evaluate computer-related contributions. A number of institutions have added software development to their criteria for promotion and tenure (Cartwright & Cartwright, 1987), but little direction has been offered on procedures to use in this evaluation. A recent handbook on tenure and promotion review procedures (Miller, 1987) does not even mention the evaluation of software or computer work. There are some remedies to this problem, and we will return to them in the last section.To assess the status of computing in any discipline, it seems most logical to look at the quality of its software. The quality of software pro-

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