[Air-L] Twitter Created a New GUI for Academics with Historical Data Access

[Stuart Shulman]

Twitter Created a New GUI for Academics with Historical Data Access

A question I get weekly concerns how to access historical Twitter and other
types of social data. I have developed a stock answer that goes out in the
confirmations when an academic signs up for a free DiscoverText account and
excerpts of it appear below with an update. Currently new academic users
get a 10-user license for 12 months to store 500,000 Tweets or other text
data units on DiscoverText. The training is free. The big news is that
Twitter recently created a new graphical user interface for accessing
historical Twitter in JSON format. Several PhD candidates reported to me
this was news to them when I pointed to the URL, so I am sharing the
updated academic user form letter below.

---

If you want Twitter data that is historical, academics must apply directly
to Twitter for special credentials:
https://developer.twitter.com/en/products/twitter-api/academic-research

Once you get the credentials, you could use Python to download the JSON
format data:
https://github.com/texifter/tools-for-twitter

There is a fantastic new academic Twitter research GUI for those who may
prefer skipping the Python steps altogether.
https://developer.twitter.com/apitools/downloader

This is an excellent addition to the academic Twitter ecosystem. These
exported JSON files upload directly to DiscoverText for collaborative,
web-based, TOS-compliant data science experiments using the Twitter
display, deduplication, and machine-learning. You can upload historical
Twitter data in JSON format to DiscoverText for analysis:
https://vimeo.com/679097662

Many people also ask about Facebook, Instagram, and other social data.
DiscoverText has not been connected to Facebook's open API since 2014. We
do not store or access any social data except Twitter. A caveat is that
some academics do have legal access to non-Twitter social data and that
data, when stored in spreadsheets, can be uploaded by researchers into
their DiscoverText account like any other spreadsheet:
https://vimeo.com/622539257

No academic should study Twitter data in a spreadsheet until they have
spent 7 minutes watching this "Case Against..." to which I have never heard
a cogent rebuttal:
https://vimeo.com/526218014

If you are a professor and you want to use DiscoverText in class, please
send me a list of student emails and they will all get licenses directly
issued. In general, feel free to let me know if you have questions or want
a meeting about your research design or implementation.

I look forward to supporting your work,
~Stu

Dr. Stuart Shulman