Social Sciences faculty members are active in research and have published in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Marriage and Family, British Journal of Sociology, China Quarterly, Government and Opposition, Mind, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and Philosophical Studies.

The Social Sciences Research Collaboration Programme was launched to inculcate a vibrant research environment and to promote global collaboration with research scholars of leading universities around the world. Through this programme, researchers are invited and supported by the School for short-term visits of about one to four weeks. Active research collaboration has been cultivated within the School as well as internationally.

The Social Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series invites eminent scholars to deliver lectures to the academic faculty and general public.

The Social Sciences Seminar Series helps promote the dissemination of research findings.

The School has a Working Paper Series aimed to encourage faculty to publish their preliminary research findings. A number of these papers were subsequently published in scholarly journals.

The Social Sciences Capstone Seminar Series, started in January 2007, is a series of panel sessions and invited talks to promote scholarly interactions among SMU faculty, SMU students, and the intellectual community outside SMU. The series of seminars are conducted by invited speakers who are mostly SMU professors in psychology, sociology, political science, and the humanities, but there are also occasional invited speakers from organizations outside SMU.  Many of these sessions are in the form of a panel discussion, where a panel of professors from diverse disciplines in the social sciences and humanities come together to offer their perspectives on the same topic.  The primary aim of these panel sessions is to help develop a multi-disciplinary mindset to approaching and understanding real-world phenomena and issues, by applying the knowledge, skills, and experiences acquired in the various disciplines. Examples of panel discussion topics include multi-disciplinary perspectives on work-family conflict, global warming, blogging, mass media and values, rationality, and ageing population.