ABSTRACT
The acquisition of knowledge through research is widely understood to be one of the main purposes of a university. In general, the academic research, irrespective of subject discipline, will be funded by a learned society, government research council or charitable body with the intention that its methodology and findings be published so as to benefit society as a whole. In order to convey their message and instructions to their supporters on a wide scale, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria had in addition, perhaps unwittingly; thereby put details of its operating methods into the public domain where interested academic researchers capable of reading French could collect the information. The most obvious challenges to conducting sensitive research through open source information stem from the four chief characteristics of that information: its volume, velocity, variety and veracity. However, perhaps the foremost challenge to academics engaging in sensitive research using open source information lies elsewhere.
