X-Hub: An Infrastructure for the Multi-disciplinary Secondary Use of Data from Experimental Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, with a Focus on Benchmark and Large Groups Experiments

在经济学和社会科学的研究中，实验方法的使用数量迅速增加。这些分支学科有许多共同的主题--公共产品、大群体、社会偏好--以及许多理论难题。但最新的发现几乎看不到社区边界。结果之一是，采用了截然不同的方法和标准，而这种情况又缺乏透明度。因此，该项目旨在建立一个基础设施，促进跨学科边界的实验数据的透明度，可复制性和重复使用。适用于原始数据集的不同方法和范式应该一眼就能看到，这样任何子学科的研究人员都可以在他们特定的学科视角下发现和评估数据和研究。实现任何典型研究数据服务单元的核心元素将提供此基础。将建立一个低门槛的数据储存库，供实验研究人员存放新数据。将拟订长期存档的概念。元数据方案将被定义和元数据创建，最初考虑到每个涉及的学科的角度。持久性标识符将提供可引用的研究数据，最后，这些数据将提供给国际社会供二次使用。使用多学科方法的附加值将通过创建“更高层次”的元数据来实现，这种元数据允许对同一数据有不同的看法。新基础设施的要素和实用性将通过存档实验经济学，实验社会学和实验政治学的选定研究来进行测试，这些研究涉及大型团体和基准实验主题下的研究问题。对现有数据的实质性和方法学研究将揭示通过合并实验经济学和社会科学研究传统可以取得的成果。因此，该项目的一个受欢迎的附带好处将是有机会在现实生活中的例子中评估密集策划的数据共享服务的研究成果。

The experimental method is used in a rapidly increasing number of studies in both economics and the social sciences. These sub-disciplines share many topics - public goods, large groups, social preferences - and many theoretical puzzles. But latest findings are hardly visible across community borders. One consequence is that vastly different methodological approaches and criteria are applied, without much transparency about that circumstance. Therefore this project aims to establish an infrastructure that fosters transparency, replicability, and reuse of experimental data across disciplinary borders. Diverging methods and paradigms applicable to primary data sets shall become visible at first sight, such that researchers from any sub-discipline can find and evaluate the data and research under their particular disciplinary perspective. The basis for this will be provided by implementing core elements of any typical research data service unit. A data repository with a low threshold for new data deposits from experimental researchers will be established. Concepts for long-term archiving will be prepared. Metadata schemes will be defined and metadata created, initially taking the perspective of each involved discipline. Persistent identifiers will provide citable research data, and finally, the data will be made available to an international community for secondary use. The added value of using a multi-disciplinary approach will be realized by creating metadata of a 'higher order', which allows for different perspectives on the same data. The elements and the usefulness of the new infrastructure will be put to the test by archiving selected studies from experimental economics, experimental sociology and experimental political science that address research questions under the topic of large groups and benchmark experiments. Substantive and methodological research on the existing data will reveal gains that can be made by merging the experimental economics and social science research traditions. Therefore, a welcome side-benefit of the project will be the opportunity to evaluate the research yield of intensively curated data-sharing services in a real-life example.