Research methods in economics and social sciences are evolving rapidly with the rise of AI-driven analytics, Large Language Models (LLMs), and causal machine learning. The increasing availability of Internet and Big Data sources has enabled new forms of measurement, inference, and theory testing. As these sources, methods, and applications become more interdisciplinary, the 8th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2026) provides a consolidated forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and advances on how emerging computational and data-intensive methods are applied to social and economic phenomena, and to discuss the opportunities and challenges they bring.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Internet and Big Data sources
Google Trends and Search Engine data
Social media and public opinion mining
Web scraping and online content analysis
Geospatial, sensor, and mobile phone data
Open and linked data
Multimodal and heterogeneous data integration
Synthetic data generation for research
Data Science and Machine Learning Methods in social sciences
AI and machine learning applications
Machine learning econometrics
Causal machine learning
Causal inference with observational data
Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI applications
Natural Language Processing and text-based measurement
Sentiment, topic, and narrative analysis
Statistical learning
Information quality and assessment
Human–AI collaboration and annotation methods
Natural Language Processing
Explainability and interpretability
Algorithmic bias, fairness and accountability
Data validation, quality and reproducibility
Applications in Economics and Social Sciences
Politics and social media
Sustainability, ESG and development indicators
Financial markets
Official statistics
Forecasting and nowcasting
Tourism and mobility analytics
Bibliometrics and sciencetometrics
Social and consumer behaviour
eWOM and social media marketing
Labor market and skills intelligence
Business analytics and digital marketing
Data-driven innovation and competitiveness
Digital Transformation and Global Society
Privacy, ethics, and responsible AI
Data economy, governance and regulation
Digital platforms and market structures
e-Government and data-driven policy
Smart Cities
Industry 5.0 and organizational AI adoption
Digital Economy Governance
Future of Work and automation
Economic inequality in the data economy
Gender and diversity in digital contexts

The organizers extend an invitation to scholars from around the globe to present their latest and most recently published research findings. The Scientific Committee is particularly interested in receiving submissions that showcase applied and empirical research of significant interest to scholars of the social sciences.

Conference Details

The CARMA 2026 conference will be held on 1 – 3 July 2026 at the Faculty of Business Administration and Management of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), which has been recently ranked as the best technical university in Spain by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2025.

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and is located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital city of the Comunitat Valenciana region, which is major tourist destination in summer.

The organizing committee looks forward to welcoming you all to a fruitful conference with open discussions and important networking to promote high quality research.