IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revpol/v32y2015i2p175-199.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who's Afraid of WikiLeaks? Missed Opportunities in Political Science Research

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel J. Michael

Abstract

Leaked information, such as WikiLeaks’ Cablegate, constitutes a unique and valuable data source for researchers interested in a wide variety of policy-oriented topics. Yet political scientists have avoided using leaked information in their research. This article argues that we can and should use leaked information as a data source in scholarly research. First, the methodological, ethical, and legal challenges related to the use of leaked information in research have been considered, concluding that none of these present serious obstacles. Second, how political scientists can use leaked information to generate novel and unique insights concerning political phenomena using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods have been shown. Specifically, how leaked documents reveal important details concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and how leaked diplomatic cables highlight a significant disparity between the U.S. government's public attitude toward traditional knowledge and its private behavior have been demonstrated.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel J. Michael, 2015. "Who's Afraid of WikiLeaks? Missed Opportunities in Political Science Research," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 32(2), pages 175-199, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:32:y:2015:i:2:p:175-199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ropr.12120
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arce, Daniel G., 2015. "WikiLeaks and the risks to critical foreign dependencies," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 3-11.
    2. Patz, Ronny, 2017. "Bureaucratic politics and the prevention of leaks in the European Commission," SocArXiv f59z4, Center for Open Science.
    3. Douthit, Jeremy & Millar, Melanie & White, Roger M., 2021. "Horseshoes, hand grenades, and regulatory enforcement: Close experience with potential sanctions and fraud deterrence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 137-148.
    4. Kenchington, David G. & Shohfi, Thomas D. & Smith, Jared D. & White, Roger M., 2022. "Do sin tax hikes spur cheating in interpersonal exchange?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Gertz, Geoffrey & Jandhyala, Srividya & Poulsen, Lauge N. Skovgaard, 2018. "Legalization, diplomacy, and development: Do investment treaties de-politicize investment disputes?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 239-252.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:32:y:2015:i:2:p:175-199. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipsonea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.