It may be surprising to encounter psychologists and social scientists at a cybersecurity center. However, behind it lies a unique concept: the creation of an in-house department staffed with qualified personnel to offer advice on social science methods and manage research infrastructure. The project was implemented by psychologist Dr. Michael Schilling. In 2020, he was entrusted with its leadership by CISPA’s founding director and CEO, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Backes. Today, the Empirical Research Support (ERS) department consists of eight employees, including six psychologists, one statistician, and one sociologist, as well as a handful of student assistants.
Head of the department Dr. Schilling describes the philosophy of his work as follows: “In my view, the core focus is on enhancing research methodology and scientific rigor in the field of behavioral research on IT security. CISPA can have a great impact in this regard by advancing the topic overall and providing our researchers with concrete methodological knowledge and the necessary infrastructure.” The expertise of his department covers the entire lifecycle of a research process: from developing the study design and employing methods to data analysis and methodological proofreading.
Schilling defines the core task of the department as advising on scientific issues as well as active collaboration on projects. “This can even extend to co-authorship on a study,” he explains. The ERS team’s consulting services encompass a wide range of research methods, from interviews and surveys to discourse analysis, experiments, and eye-tracking. This also includes various data analysis procedures, such as qualitative content analysis or statistical hypothesis testing. Ideally, his team is involved as early as possible, the psychologist explains. “Because once the data is collected, there is hardly anything that can be changed,” Schilling continues. “Nevertheless, we are open to joining a study at any stage to see where and how we can offer support.”
The second pillar of the department’s work is the provision of research infrastructure. For example, the department provides access keys to the survey tool Qualtrics. Additionally, it offers licenses for programs used in qualitative data analysis, such as Atlas.ti, which are supplemented by introductory courses on the various tools. “Ultimately, it’s about taking as much of the administrative burden off the researchers as possible, so that they can focus on their core task which is research,” says Schilling.
A good example of how the ERS team combines services for the center with its own research activities is a comparative study on transcription services conducted in 2023. The team started by questioning whether CISPA researchers should be recommended manual or AI-supported transcription services. With this study, the ERS team was not only able to provide their in-house colleagues with a data-driven recommendation, but also to present the results in a poster session at the renowned IT conference CCS and sharing them with the research community. In summary, it was a win-win scenario that also contributes to the department's overall success.
