Open Large Language Models in Comparative Research


When: Thursday 31 October – Friday 1 November 2024
Where: Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Organisers: Orsolya Ring – Miklós Sebők, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest, Artificial Intelligence National Laboratory, CSS, Budapest 

With this Call for Proposals, we solicit papers for a panel on Open Large Language Models in Comparative Political Research at the First MethodsNET Conference at UCLouvain. The conference will take place between 31 October and 1 November 2024. The proposed panel is focused on the use of open large language models (LLMs, such as BERT, XLM-RoBERTa etc.) in comparative political and communication research. While our primary interest is not in applications based on proprietary models (such as GPT4), we encourage submissions on the comparison of the performance of open vs. closed models on various tasks. 

We are particularly interested in papers addressing the following problems:

  1. Optimal utilisation of existing LLMs: Papers showcasing the effective utilisation of current LLMs in research endeavours, including classification tasks, along with discussions on their potential benefits and challenges.
  2. Advancements in LLM technology relevant to social science: Papers about new technical developments in LLMs that are significant to the social science community.
  3. The advantages and disadvantages of using open fine-tuned LLMs vs. proprietary models (such as GPT4) in research, with particular attention to validation and replicability issues. 
  4. Original-Translated-Multilingual: the usage of LLMs in the social sciences, either in the original language or with data translated into English or multilingual. 

We expect four papers to be selected, subject to the decision of the conference organisers. The final papers need to be uploaded by 9 October.

Please note that participation is self-funded. The conference has a standalone fee of €220. However, the price is reduced if you become a MethodsNET member. Please see more information here.

How to submit?

Please submit your proposal on this form by 17 June 2024. Should you have any questions, please contact us at ring.orsolya[at]tk.hu and sebok.miklos[at]tk.hu.Â