SocSciBotSocSciBot Installation Instructions

Before installing, please check that you agree with the terms and conditions.

This software only runs under Microsoft Windows, sorry

SocSciBot 3 and 4 are fully compatible in terms of data and analysis. SocSciBot 4 is easier to use, faster and has more useful features but SocSciBot 3 is more tested and hence is more stable. SocSciBot 4 is now the recommended version but please switch to version 3 if you have problems with version 4.

SocSciBot 4

This is the most powerful and easy to use version of SocSciBot but may not be as stable as SocSciBot 3. It is broadly similar to SocSciBot 3 but incorporates SocSciBot Tools and Cyclist, is more user-friendly and incorporates a network graphing package. The current version has the freezing problem of the 2 September 2008 version fixed.

Please complete the information below to receive a link to download the 21 January, 2010 version of SocSciBot 4.1 (feature is corrected in this one and SocSciBot Network is improved).

Full Name

Email Address

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Send me an email when a new version is released

Emails will not normally be sent more than once per month and can be cancelled at any time.

If you use SocSciBot in a paper then I would be grateful if you would consider citing the following as a reference for using the program: Thelwall, M. (2009). Introduction to Webometrics: Quantitative Web Research for the Social Sciences. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool.

SocSciBot 4.1 now allows multiple simultaneous crawls - you can feed it with a list of home pages and it will crawl them all at once (the results can't be used properly in Cyclist though). For this option, check the multiple crawl box instead of entering the URL of the web site to be crawled).

If SocSciBot 4 does not start, then you may need to install the "dot net framework" and then try again. For this, go to the following URL, download and install the software there (23Mb). This is the "Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package"
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en

It is not known if SocSciBot 4 runs via mono on Macs or Linux - please let me know if it does.

See the SocSciBot4 blog for more information and to report bugs.

SocSciBot 3

This is the most stable version of SocSciBot but is not as powerful or easy to use as SocSciBot 4. If using a student network or office computer and do not have permission to install software then try option 1, otherwise option 2 is a standard installation procedure.

There may be installation problems for SocSciBot 3 with Windows Vista - the Vista solution is here - thanks to Julian Hopkins.

SocSciBotOption 1: Quick install. Right-click on the following file and save to a new folder on your computer (Feb. 2007 version, contains SocSciBot, SocSciBot Tools and Cyclis, plus helper files that need to stay in the same folder as the three programs). When the file has been downloaded, unzip the file. The you should be able to just click on the unzipped program to run it. If it gives you an error message, then you may need to use the full install option 2 below. You must run the programs by locating them with Windows Explorer and then double-clicking on them. On some computers this will not work and you will have to use option 2 instead.

SocSciBotOption 2: Full install. You must have permission to install programs on your computer to do this. Note that this process needs three separate installations and one extra task to be complete.

  1. Download the main SocSciBot installation file and save it anywhere on your computer (Feb. 2007 version). Unzip the file and then click on the setup program and follow the instructions.
  2. Download the SocSciBot Tools installation file and save it anywhere on your computer. Unzip the file and then click on the setup program and follow the instructions.
  3. Download the Cyclist installation file and save it anywhere on your computer. Unzip the file and then click on the setup program and follow the instructions.
  4. If the programs are being installed by a technician/administrator then it is important that SocSciBot is run first, immediately after installation, so that SocSciBot can record the location that you want for your data files. This should be in your personal user space.
  5. You are now ready to go! The three programs SocSciBot, SocSciBot Tools and Cyclist can be accessed via your computer's start menu.

See the SocSciBot3 blog for more release information and to report bugs.