Replication Data for: Building Research Infrastructures to Study Digital Technology and Politics: Lessons from Switzerland

The effects of digital technology on political processes are an important phenomenon that, due to several structural problems, remains poorly understood. A key issue is the lack of adequate research infrastructures, or the lack of access. We first discuss the challenges many social scientists face and then present the infrastructure we built in Switzerland to overcome them, using COVID-19 as an example. We conclude by discussing seven lessons we learned: automatization is key; avoid data hoarding; outsource some parts of the infrastructure, but not others; focus on substantive questions; share data in the context of collaborations; engage in targeted public outreach; collaboration beats competition. We hope that our experience will be helpful to other researchers pursuing similar goals.