Platform for Research Optimization and Creation of Experiments in Social Science (PROCESS)

Understanding human behavior and social dynamics is critical to inform decision makers, planners, and intelligence analysts about policy options and their possible outcomes. Social science research aims to achieve this understanding by developing theories and models of human behavior and interaction. However, there is currently a chasm between the research and operational communities, making it difficult to apply research findings in mission environments. Augmenting this work with tools that provide insights into the validity of social science conclusions can facilitate more informed application of these findings in operational settings and provide methodological guidance to help the research community achieve more robust outcomes. To address these challenges, we completed a Phase I effort where we successfully designed and demonstrated a Platform for Research Optimization and Creation of Experiments in Social Science (PROCESS). PROCESS is a community-driven platform that supports meta-analysis and discovery of social science research, leveraging human expertise for extraction of relevant features and outcome metrics, and providing adaptive workflows to enhance the research design process. Based on our Phase I success, we now propose a Phase II effort to refine, implement, and experimentally evaluate a full-scope PROCESS prototype.