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Amazon Mechanical Turk: A Research Tool for Organizations and Information Systems Scholars

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Shaping the Future of ICT Research. Methods and Approaches
Amazon Mechanical Turk: A Research Tool for Organizations and Information Systems Scholars
  • Kevin Crowston3 

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 389))

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Abstract

Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), a system for crowdsourcing work, has been used in many academic fields to support research and could be similarly useful for information systems research. This paper briefly describes the functioning of the AMT system and presents a simple typology of research data collected using AMT. For each kind of data, it discusses potential threats to reliability and validity and possible ways to address those threats. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of possible applications of AMT to research on organizations and information systems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Syracuse University School of Information Studies, 348 Hinds Hall, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Kevin Crowston

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  1. Kevin Crowston
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, 33620, Tampa, FL, USA

    Anol Bhattacherjee

  2. University of Limerick, Lero, Limerick, Ireland

    Brian Fitzgerald

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© 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

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Crowston, K. (2012). Amazon Mechanical Turk: A Research Tool for Organizations and Information Systems Scholars. In: Bhattacherjee, A., Fitzgerald, B. (eds) Shaping the Future of ICT Research. Methods and Approaches. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 389. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35142-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35142-6_14

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Keywords

  • Amazon Mechanical Turk
  • crowd sourcing
  • research methods

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