ABSTRACT
This essay exemplifies the application of information theory to processes of scientific research.Textbooks in social research prescribe procedures for collecting data and analyzing them to gain valid representations of the world they are presumed to represent. Statistical techniques, for example, for sampling, reliability assessments, pattern extraction, and testing hypotheses amount to tools for assembling a procedure for moving data to conclusions without, however, saying much about what happens to these data quantitatively. Information theory provides a general calculus for qualitative variations, not only to test hypotheses concerning communication, but also to trace the flow of data through complex systems. Doing research can be conceptualized as such a system.
