In this special episode of #aBitOfCCS, Jana Bernhard-Harrer sits down with Marvin Stecker, a PhD student at the Computational Communication Science Lab at the University of Vienna. Marvin is part of the AUTHLIB project, which focuses on illiberal challenges to democracy.

Unlike our usual focus on specific computational methods, this episode explores a study Marvin conducted with colleagues from OPTED: “Tools of the Trade – When Are Software Tools Mentioned in Computational Text Analysis Research?” The study examines how software tools are reported in computational communication science research and what this means for transparency and replicability.

We discuss:

• Key findings from a review of 406 journal articles published between 2016 and 2020.

• Patterns of software tool reporting across disciplines and over time.

• How factors like methodological validation and tool accessibility influence tool mentions.

• Implications for transparency, replicability, and the future of computational text analysis in communication science.

This episode provides valuable insights into the role of software tools in shaping computational research practices and offers a critical look at how we can improve transparency in the field.

For more on Marvin’s work, connect with him at: Marvin Stecker – marvin.stecker@univie.ac.at