Empirical studies on the web require researchers to navigate a complex landscape of experimental design choices, ranging from selecting a representative sample of websites to choosing the appropriate crawling technology. Similarly, analyzing results involves critical decisions, such as website categorization and statistical methodology. Too often, these decisions are made based on limited guidance, informal advice, or trial and error, despite their profound impact on research outcomes and their applicability.
Measure The Web aims to bridge this gap, by providing evidence-based guidance for empirical web measurement studies. The platform evaluates design choices and their implications by referencing relevant academic publications or conducting original studies where necessary.
For novice researchers in the web measurement field, Measure The Web should provide a complete knowledge base to conduct their study. But it should be helpful also to experienced researchers, who can find here newest practices or proper arguments (or citations) to justify their design. If you are in a mentoring position, consider sharing the website (or directly Study design checklist) to your mentees and also consider reviewing and contributing to the page. Even small edits, such as supporting some subjective claim, can help make this website stronger.
The website is organized as follows. Note that it is ordered by website structure, for order by research design, navigate to Study design checklist.
We welcome contributions! Editing functionality is limited to registered users. You might want to check Contributing page, which helps with the syntax.