Historical Social Research-Historische Sozialforschung《历史社会研究》(季刊). Historical Social Research (HSR) is an international journal for the application of formal methods to history and was founded in 1976. The application of formal methods to history includes quantitative and computer-assisted qualitative social research, historical sociology and social scientific history, cliometrical research, and historical information science. In a broader sense, the field Historical Social Research can be described as an inter-/ transdisciplinary paradigm.