Skip to main content
Log in

DataGorri: a tool for automated data collection of tabular web content

  • Published:
NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The era of the internet has been a boon for empirical and evidence-based research. By providing ever increasing amounts of data, the internet offers numerous opportunities for new empirical studies. While some research questions require data that was previously more time-consuming to collect, other data was simply not available before the creation of the internet. However, publicly available information is still often unstructured and its collection can be highly resource-intensive. In this paper we present DataGorri, a software enabling the user-friendly and automated collection of repetitive and non-repetitive tabular data that is freely available on websites. This paper depicts the motivation underlying the software’s creation, describes its usage, and discusses its advantages and limitations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abramo, G., Cicero, T., D’Angelo, C.A. (2012). Revisiting size effects in higher education research productivity. Higher Education, 63(6), 701–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Edelman, B. (2012). Using internet data for economic research. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2), 189–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Einav, L., & Levin, J. (2014a). The data revolution and economic analysis. Innovation Policy and the Economy, 14(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Einav, L., & Levin, J. (2014b). Economics in the age of big data. Science, 346(6210), 1243089.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Faria, J.R., & Goel, R.K. (2010). Returns to networking in academia. Netnomics, 11(2), 103–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Golden, J., & Carstensen, F.V. (1992a). Academic research productivity, department size and organization: Further results, comment. Economics of Education Review, 11(2), 153–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Golden, J., & Carstensen, F.V. (1992b). Academic research productivity, department size and organization: Further results, rejoinder. Economics of Education Review, 11(2), 169–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hamermesh, D.S. (2013). Six decades of top economics publishing: Who and how? Journal of Economic Literature, 51(1), 162–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jordan, J.M., Meador, M., Walters, S.J. (1988). Effects of department size and organization on the research productivity of academic economists. Economics of Education Review, 7(2), 251–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jordan, J.M., Meador, M., Walters, S.J. (1989). Academic research productivity, department size and organization: Further results. Economics of Education Review, 8(4), 345–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Meador, M., Walters, S.J., Jordan, J.M. (1992). Academic research productivity: Reply, still further results. Economics of Education Review, 11(2), 161–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Netcraft. (2018). August 2018 web server survey. https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2018/08/24/august-2018-web-server-survey.html. Accessed: 03 September 2018.

  13. Samuelson, P.A., & Nordhaus, W.D. (1998). Economics, 16th edition. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Wuchty, S., Jones, B.F., Uzzi, B. (2007). The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge. Science, 316(5827), 1036–1039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Zimmermann, C. (2013). Academic rankings with RePEc. Econometrics, 1(3), 249–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to current or previous versions of DataGorri: Ivaylo Dimitrov, Matthias Franze, Stefan Hentschel, Lukas Holzner, Florian Kreitmair, Daniel Krieger, Michael Legenc, and Marc Müller. A list of DataGorri’s developers and contributors can also be found at https://www.julianhackinger.com/software/datagorri/. Furthermore, we thank Christian Feilcke and Miriam Leidinger, and two anonymous reviewers for comments, and Alexander Schlimm for research assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julian Hackinger.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hackinger, J. DataGorri: a tool for automated data collection of tabular web content. Netnomics 19, 31–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11066-018-9125-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11066-018-9125-2

Keywords

Navigation