Open source MIT-licensed
Manage your digital ethnographic qualitative projects
With ManuScrape your can collect, enrich and export research observations with ease, while staying organized and GDPR compliant. All free of charge.
“ We developed ManuScrape in MOD-Lab to improve our data collecting processes. The ability to capture data in an GDPR kosher way, coupled with efficient coding and a straightforward import into NVivo, has been a cornerstone to the success of our research projects. ”
Prof. Jakob Demant, MOD-lab, University of Copenhagen
Introducing ManuScrape
Understanding online behaviour is crucial for research and learning. However, accessing social media data ethically while complying with data regulations like GDPR can be a challenge. ManuScrape simplifies this process, empowering researchers and students to gather comprehensive data in a transparent way.
More about GDPR
What is ManuScrape?
ManuScrape is an open source, user-friendly software designed to make large-scale netnographic research accessible to everyone. ManuScrape provides extended tools for capturing, annotating and coding screenshots, along with a simple upload flow to collaboratively collect observations from online sources.
It allows you to collect and export research observations from platforms like Discord, X, Snapchat, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and any other web or app-based platform collaboratively.
How does it work?
After the initial project and collaborator setup, observation collection work as described here:
- Screenshots and Scroll Shots: Capture visual elements locally with the desktop app.
- Anonymize images: Overwrite sensitive images with censored versions using the ManuScrape image anonymizing tools
- Add observation data: Fill out the observation form (parameters are defined in project configuration)
- Submit the observation: Done!
Get started
Open source MIT-licensed
Self-hosted version
You can host the ManuScrape in your own infrastructure without relying on any third party. All the source code is available on Github.com and also contains technical documentation.
Hosted at Code Collective ApS servers
Hosted at app.manuscrape.org
If you're unable to self-host, you can use app.manuscrape.org for free. There may be added paywalls for storage and new features at some point.
Features
Record
ManuScrape lets you quickly record anything on your computer screen. You can either take a screenshot or use ManuScrape's scrollshot feature, automatically combining images when you scroll. 
Anonymize
Netnographic data is often full of personal or sensitive data. ManuScrape's in-app image editor allows you to easily edit any image to make it ethically and legally sound. 
Enrich
Code your data as you collect it to maximize data quality and keep data collection systematic across researchers. ManuScrape projects are highly customizable allowing you to choose exactly what codes and metadata you want to collect. 
Collaborate
You can invite colleagues to collaborate on your projects. Multiple researchers can collect data simultaneously making large scale digital ethnography possible, while keeping the same coding structure. 
Export
Whenever you want, you can export your project, either in its entirety or in parts hereof. Data export is designed to be compatible with NVivo but should work with any qualitative data analysis software (QDAS). 
Once a project is created, the project owner can invite others via email to join the project. There is no upper limit to how many collaborators a project can have, and you can add collaborators as you go.
Once a project is created, the project owner can invite others via email to join the project. There is no upper limit to how many collaborators a project can have, and you can add collaborators as you go.
ManuScrape works independently of the platforms’ API, and as such works on all social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
ManuScrape is a short-hand for Manual Scraping. “Manu” emphasizes the qualitative approach to online research, while “Scrape” emphasizes the systematic approach. Manu also means “hand” in latin because we want to emphasize the manual work that goes into qualitative research and the researcher that does this work.
ManuScrape began its life within the MOD-Lab at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was in its early formats designed to solve data collection for two research projects led by Associate Professor Jakob Demant. Programming and development has been a collaborative effort between all lab members and Code Collective. Other programmers and researchers have subsequently joined in on the development, which is open-source and still on-going on GitHub. See also About .
While ManuScrape accepts all file formats and data types, but is designed for visual media like images or text.
ManuScrape can collect data from smartphones. Simply mirror your phone screen to your desktop and record through the ManuScrape app. When recording through scrcpy, you can take screenshots and screenshots without the app notifying other users. This can be useful when your research does not allow you to reveal yourself, whatever the reason.
ManuScrape is designed to export to qualitative data analysis software (QDAS). It is designed with NVivo in mind but is compatible with a large number of data management softwares, depending on your requirements and preferred workflows. As such, it should in principle work with MS Excel, ATLAS.ti, Dedoose and others, though we have not tried all of these. However, you will likely have to work with the graphical (screenshots) in separate files.
At the moment ManuScrape does not provide any tools for in-app analysis. However, it allows you to enrich and code your data, while collecting it making analysis much easier.
Yes. ManuScrape has a client for Mac OS
The sky\'s the limit, but please test us on this! Our largest data set currently contains more than n=700 observations.
Yes and no. At the moment ManuScrape records video without audio, meaning that it easily records GIFs, but recording vidoes with sound will result in a loss of data complexity. However, you can record your video files separately and subsequently connect them to your ManuScrape observation. We are working on a better solution, feel free to join on GitHub!
ManuScrape is a tool provided for data collection. It is your own responsibility to conduct your work ethically and in accordance with the highest standards of integrity, including adherence to relevant laws. You must ensure that your research respects the rights and welfare of all participants involved. Researchers are expected to familiarize themselves with the ethical principles and guidelines set forth by their local institution or organization, as well as applicable laws and regulations, and to adhere to these standards throughout the research process.
Any concerns regarding ethical conduct should be addressed promptly and transparently, with full cooperation with institutional review boards or ethics committees as appropriate. For internet research we suggest following the AoIR guidelines. These should be combined with any disciplinary guidelines (e.g. from Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and Psychology).
ManuScrape helps you stay GDPR compliant by providing you the tools needed to anonymize your data while collecting it. It is your own responsibility to use these tools correctly.
Any concerns regarding ethical conduct should be addressed promptly and transparently, with full cooperation with institutional review boards or ethics committees as appropriate. For internet research we suggest following the AoIR guidelines. These should be combined with any disciplinary guidelines (e.g. from Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and Psychology).
ManuScrape helps you stay GDPR compliant by providing you the tools needed to anonymize your data while collecting it. It is your own responsibility to use these tools correctly.
Discord community & support channel
Join the support and discussion channel on Discord.
