Facebook partners with external researchers to study its impact during U.S. election

A group of 17 independent researchers from the fields of elections, democracy and social media will now work with internal Facebook data scientists to design the studies.

Facebook said it would not pay the researchers or restrict them from publishing their findings, but is entitled to review the research before its publication.

While not compensating researchers, Facebook will pay for the costs of the study, such as payments to survey vendors, said Joshua Tucker, professor of politics at New York University and one of the projects researchers.