In the era of big data, how to find new methods to analyse large electronic texts poses a challenge to the existing quantitative and qualitative analysis methods of social science. The complex social problems in the era of globalization have challenged sociolinguists. The Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Sciences, established by Lancaster University with the financial support of the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council, has applied corpus methods to some social sciences, such as the environment, crime and health. Under the guidance of Professor Tony McEnery, Director of the Centre, and with the support of colleagues
at home and abroad, and with the support of the Global China Institute, a workshop on corpus approaches to Chinese social sciences was successfully held in 2016.

The present Journal of Corpus Approaches to Chinese Social Sciences (JCACSS) was planned at the time, its purpose being to introduce the new corpus approaches to the field of social science in China, explore and publish relevant research and provide an academic exchange platform for people with common interests.