Abstract
This paper describes a case study of sampling bias in LinkedIn, a major professional social network. The study collected a sample of 1,989 STEM students who graduated from a major public university between 2002 and 2014. Overall, 40\% of the graduates had a LinkedIn profile in summer of 2015. It was observed that LinkedIn participation significantly fluctuated among different majors, and ranged from 30\% for biochemistry majors to 51\% for information science majors. Year of graduation, gender, and grade point average surprisingly did not seem to create a large difference in LinkedIn participation. These results should be useful for design and interpretation of empirical studies which use LinkedIn data or select participants from LinkedIn social network.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
