NUSC Summer School in Network and Data Science 2026

4. From Causal Questions to Mechanism Testing: Research Design and SPSS Applications

About: This workshop introduces participants to key methodological tools used in social science research, combining conceptual discussions of causal inference with practical analytical techniques.

The morning session focuses on research design and causal inference. Participants will explore the foundations of causal reasoning and the challenges of identifying causal relationships in empirical research. The session will examine the differences between observational and experimental data, discuss the logic of randomised experiments, and consider issues related to random allocation, random sampling, and internal validity. Through examples from recent research, participants will learn how different research designs allow scholars to make stronger or weaker causal claims and how to critically evaluate the methods used in published studies.

The afternoon session moves to a hands-on introduction to mediation and moderation analysis using SPSS. These approaches are widely used to investigate theoretical mechanisms and conditional relationships between variables. Participants will learn the conceptual foundations of mediation and moderation and how these techniques can help researchers test hypotheses about underlying processes in empirical data. A key focus of the session will be spurious moderation, where apparent interaction effects arise due to statistical artefacts, model misspecification, or nonlinear relationships rather than genuine moderating mechanisms. Through practical exercises in SPSS, participants will learn how to estimate mediation and moderation models and how to evaluate whether observed interaction effects are robust or potentially misleading.

By combining conceptual discussion with applied analysis, the workshop provides participants with tools both to design stronger research and to implement advanced analytical techniques in their own work.

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Understand the principles of causal inference in research.
• Distinguish between observational and experimental research designs.
• Evaluate the role of randomisation and sampling in experimental studies.
• Understand the conceptual differences between mediation and moderation.
• Estimate mediation and moderation models using SPSS.
• Identify and assess potential cases of spurious moderation.

Requirements: The workshop is suitable for beginners and early-stage researchers, and no prior knowledge of mediation or moderation analysis is required. Participants should bring their own laptops with SPSS installed, as the afternoon session includes hands-on exercises.

Instructors:

Dr Martina Testori is a computational social scientist studying how different means can be used to sustain cooperative and sustainable behaviours. She looks at how information, including gossip, and reputation impacts cooperation in groups and communities. She is especially interested in how different interventions can promote more pro-environmental behaviours and the achievement of sustainable development. She uses experimental methods and agent-based modelling to investigate cooperative and socially sustainable dynamics at the individual and collective level.

Dr Jingxi Huang joined the University of Greenwich in 2023 as a Lecturer in Strategy and Sustainability. She completed her PhD in Marketing at Lancaster University. Her academic journey also includes a Master's degree in Corporate Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations from the University of Leeds, along with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Central China Normal University and Economics from Wuhan University, both in China.

Suggested Readings

• Cunningham, S. (2021). Causal Inference: The Mixtape. Yale University Press.
• Llaudet, E., & Imai, K. (2022). Data analysis for social science: a friendly and practical introduction. Princeton University Press.
• Hernán, M. A., & Robins, J. M. (2020). Causal Inference: What If. Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
• Daryanto, A. (2025). An Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods for Marketing: Tools and Techniques Using SPSS and R. Routledge.
• Daryanto, A. (2019). Avoiding spurious moderation effects: An information-theoretic approach to moderation analysis. Journal of Business Research, 103, 110–118.

8. From Idea to Experiment: Experimental Methods and Programming in oTree

About: This hands-on workshop introduces participants to oTree, an open-source platform for designing and running experiments. oTree is widely used in economics, political science, psychology, and other social sciences to conduct online surveys, behavioural experiments, and interactive multiplayer studies.

The workshop is designed for researchers who want to develop and implement their own experiments in a professional research environment, without relying on proprietary software such as Qualtrics or more limited and less suitable tools such as Google Forms. Built on Python, oTree offers a flexible and robust framework for creating experiments that can be deployed both online and in laboratory settings.

Participants will receive a step-by-step introduction to the oTree workflow, starting with the basic structure of an experiment and moving towards practical implementation. The session will cover how to set up an oTree project, create experimental pages, manage participant interactions, and structure experimental rounds and treatments.

Throughout the day, participants will work directly with the platform to build simple experimental applications, including surveys and interactive experiments. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a working understanding of how to develop and deploy experiments using oTree.

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Understand the basic structure of experiments implemented in oTree.
• Install and configure an oTree project.
• Develop survey and interactive experimental applications.
• Implement randomisation and treatment assignment.
• Design simple user interfaces using HTML and CSS in oTree.
• Launch and manage experiments on a local server.

Requirements: No prior programming experience is required. The workshop is suitable for beginners and early-stage researchers interested in experimental methods. Participants should bring their own laptops and will receive instructions for installing the necessary software before the workshop.

Instructor: Dr Martina Testori is a computational social scientist studying how different means can be used to sustain cooperative and sustainable behaviours. She looks at how information, including gossip, and reputation impacts cooperation in groups and communities. She is especially interested in how different interventions can promote more pro-environmental behaviours and the achievement of sustainable development. She uses experimental methods and agent-based modelling to investigate cooperative and socially sustainable dynamics at the individual and collective level.

Suggested Readings

• Chen, D. L., Schonger, M., & Wickens, C. (2016). oTree—An open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 9, 88–97.
• oTree documentation.