Independence in the Post-API and Post-Publisher World: A Manifesto for Computational Social Science in 2026 and Beyond

✊💾 Own your data

✊✍️ Own your outputs

✊⏳ Own your time

Own your data.

My research agenda has been rug-pulled twice by disappearing APIs. Fool me once, shame on the billionaire. Fool me twice, shame on me. As computational social scientists, we must adapt to the Post-API age.

The solution is obvious: own your data.

Personally, here is what I am doing:

  1. I pay randomly selected American adults to take part in surveys and experiments.
  2. The budget comes from a funder who loves my work: me. I tithe 10% of my (gross) salary to pay for data collection.
  3. Because I own the data, I can share without restriction. And I do. Collected data instantly and automatically becomes a free public good.

Own your outputs.

Science publishing is deeply broken. Editors and reviewers work slowly and sloppily without pay. Taxpayers must pay to read the results of research they paid for.

I have published Open Access, but paying $2000+ to put a PDF on the web is a bad deal. At most journals, the author (who wrote the article) also does all the work of preparing a manuscript for publication: formatting, copy-editing, proofing. And then the article looks like garbage and is either behind a paywall or three clicks deep into a slow website. As computational social scientists, we must adapt to the Post-Publisher age.

The solution is obvious: own your outputs.

Personally, here is what I am doing:

  1. I write monographs in whatever form I feel like. Blog post, forum post, slides, ebook.
  2. My publisher loves my work: it's me. For less than an Article Processing Charge, I can create and distribute a monograph as a publicly available PDF, a website, and hardcover books I give away like business cards.
  3. Because I own my output, I can format and share without restriction. And I do. As many or as few words as needed - digital-first and fully-searchable. Full color visualizations next to reproducible code.

Own your time.

I teach two classes every semester, have two kids with grandparents two different cross-country flights away. I don't owe anyone time I don't have. Especially to work without pay for their profit. As computational social scientists, we must adapt to hyper-capitalism.

The solution is obvious: own your time.

Personally, here is what I am doing:

  1. I plan to stop unpaid reviewing and editing.
  2. Instead, I will offer as a service paid, public peer review.
  3. For my own work, I will purchase others' paid, public peer review.

Written by Dr. Jason Jeffrey Jones on .