Peer-reviewed research on civic technology, data science, and public policy
SSRN
This article discusses the inconsistencies, inaccuracies and challenges of sentiment analysis and demonstrates problems with using sentiment analysis lexicons or dictionaries for estimating sentiment in textual artifacts, comparing multiple methods on stock market and vaccine tweets.
Software Impacts
New Jersey law requires police officers to document motor vehicle collisions on a standardized form known as NJTR-1. This paper presents njtr1, an R package that enables road safety and urban planning research in New Jersey by facilitating the easy download, automated cleaning and analysis of the raw crash table data published by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Software Impacts
This paper presents zipcodeR, an R package that facilitates analysis of ZIP code-level data by providing an offline database of ZIP codes and functions for geocoding, normalizing and retrieving data about ZIP codes and relating them to other geographies in R without depending on any external services.
17th Research Data Alliance Plenary Meeting
This poster presents the OPRAmachine platform and research dataset, which is the first U.S.-based deployment of the open-source Alaveteli software for automating the FOI request process and collecting data on FOI requests submitted to authorities.
Data in Brief
This article presents the OPRAmachine dataset: data containing detailed metadata on public records requests submitted to state and local public authorities in New Jersey since October 2017, collected through the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate the freedom of information request process.
William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy
Multi-year research study examining the underground and undocumented construction economy in New Jersey, including policy analysis and data-driven examination of the problem's scope and impact on legitimate contractors and workers.
William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, Stockton University
Policy brief examining how New Jersey municipalities grant tax abatements to developers and the implications for revenue distribution to counties, fire districts and boards of education under existing state law.
Interested in collaborating on research related to civic technology, open data, or public policy? I'm open to academic partnerships and consulting engagements.