Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis using IBM SPSS Statistcs by
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statisticsprovides a practical, hands-on introduction to data conceptualization, measurement, and association through active learning. Students get step-by-step instruction on data analysis using the latest version of SPSS and the most current General Social Survey data. The authors start with an introduction to computerized data analysis and the social research process, then walk users through univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis using SPSS. The book contains applications from across the social sciences--sociology, political science, social work, criminal justice, health--so it can be used in courses offered in any of these departments.
Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods in Theses and Dissertations by
`Aimed at empowering students with the information necessary to choose the best approach to fit their needs, the text outlines numerous research options from varying viewpoints, and highlights the procedures involved with putting each method into practice′ - Qualitative Research Journal `This book offers a broad spectrum of research methodologies within one text that is easy to understand. R Murray Thomas examines educational research as a series of simple and complex questions. This integrated presentation of research methodologies makes this a unique text′ - Roxana Della Vecchia, Assistant Dean, College of Education, Towson University Traditionally, graduate students have written theses and dissertations that take either qualitative or quantitative approach. But in the current environment, many students are opting for a mixed-methods approach that combines some quantitative methods with qualitative methods. This is a growing trend, yet no book exists that applies mixed methods to writing the dissertation or theses. This book aims to fill that gap.
Conducting Research in Conservation: Social Science Methods and Practice by
Conducting Research in Conservation is the first textbook on social science research methods written specifically for use in the expanding and increasingly multidisciplinary field of environmental conservation. The first section on planning a research project includes chapters on the need for social science research in conservation, defining a research topic, methodology, and sampling. Sectionnbsp;two focuses on practical issues in carrying out fieldwork with local communities, from fieldwork preparation and data collection to the relationships between the researcher and the study community. Sectionnbsp;three provides an in-depth focus on a range of social science methods including standard qualitative and quantitative methods such as participant observation, interviewing and questionnaires, and more advanced methods, such as ethnobiological methods for documenting local environmental knowledge and change, and participatory methods such as the 'PRA' toolbox. Sectionnbsp;four then demonstrates how to analyze social science data qualitatively and quantitatively; and the final section outlines the writing-up process and what should happen after the end of the formal research project. This book is a comprehensive and accessible guide to social science research methods for students of conservation related subjects and practitioners trained in the natural sciences. It features practical worldwide examples of conservation-related research in different ecosystems such as forests; grasslands; marine and riverine systems; and farmland. Boxes provide definitions of key terms, practical tips, and brief narratives from students and practitioners describe the practical issues that they have faced in the field.
Creating Digital Resources for the Visual Arts by
This guide provides advice on legal issues such as Copyright and Rights Management when creating and using digital picture resources, technical advice on software and producing good quality images, standards for data documentation, project management, storage and preservation, and innovative creative techniques, including web design and virtual reality.
Data Collection and Management by
Tired of a trial-and-error approach to collecting and managing data? Data Collection and Management offers helpful information on managing research projects. By stressing how to use good standards for data collecting and processing, the authors cover such important how-tos as planning research activities; making budgetary decisions and keeping the budget under control; hiring, training, and supervising field interviewing staff; establishing whether interviewers are ready to start interviewing; and ensuring high participant acquisition and retention rates. The book also covers using computerized information systems for tracking data collected and the data management process. Proposal writers, principal investigators, graduate research students, and project coordinators of research requiring large-scale field data collection will find the book to be an indispensable tool.
Data Literacy: A User's Guide by
We are swimming in a world of data, and this handy guide will keep students afloat while they learn to make sense of it all. David Herzog, a journalist with more than 15 years of experience using data analysis to transform information into captivating storytelling, introduces readers to the fundamentals of data literacy. Assuming the reader has no advanced knowledge of data analysis or statistics, the book shows how to create insight from publicly-available data. Extensively illustrated, step-by-step instructions within a concise, yet comprehensive, reference will help readers to master: What data is and what it isn't, How to develop a "database set of mind," How to gather data, How to evaluate data, How to clean up "dirty data," How to visualize data, and How to use tools for data analysis and visualization.
Doing a Successful Research Project: Using Qualitative or Quantitative Methods by
Doing a Successful Research Project is a realistic, user-friendly guide on how to conduct a research project that talks at the student's level; akin to having a tutor right at one's side. It offers an accessible, even-handed introduction to carrying out research methods for undergraduate and postgraduate students conducting a research project for the first time. The research process--from planning, through design and implementation, to completion--is described simply and succinctly, with the emphasis throughout on good preparation. The book provides students with the self-discipline and the confidence to carry out their own research project, as well as enabling them to assess for themselves the advantages and disadvantages of the differing strategies available.
Environmental Social Sciences: Methods and Research Design by
The relationship between human communities and the environment is extremely complex. In order to resolve the issues involved with this relationship, interdisciplinary research combining natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities is necessary. In this 2010 book, specialists summarise methods and research strategies for various aspects of social research devoted to environmental issues. Each chapter is illustrated with ethnographic and environmental examples, ranging from Australia to Amazonia, from Madagascar to the United States, and from prehistoric and historic cases to contemporary rural and urban ones. It deals with climate change, deforestation, environmental knowledge, natural reserves, politics and ownership of natural resources, and the effect of differing spatial and temporal scales. Contributing to the intellectual project of interdisciplinary environmental social science, this book shows the possibilities social science can provide to environmental studies and to larger global problems and thus will be of equal interest to social and natural scientists and policy makers.
A Guide to Field Research by
This volume provides the new student with an accurate picture of the realities of doing field research. The author demonstrates that the stages in doing field research are not linear and step-by-step but rather overlapping, ongoing and reciprocal. Emphasis is placed on ethical issues and the many ways that status characteristics affect the process of field research.
A Handbook for Social Science Field Research: Essays & Bibliographic Sources on Research Design and Methods by
A Handbook for Social Science Field Research provides both novice and experienced researcher with valuable insights into a key list of critical texts pertaining to a wide array of social science methods useful when doing fieldwork. Through essays on everything from ethnography to case study, archival research, oral history, surveys, secondary data analysis and ethics, this refreshing new collection offers `tales from the field′ by renowned scholars across various disciplines.
Improving Survey Questions by
What is a good question? Although there are several potential sources for error in survey data, the validity of surveys depends on the design of the questions asked. This book shows how to word and format a question, write questions that will evoke the kind of answers for which they were designed, and empirically evaluate survey questions. In addition, the book covers topics such as how to write good questions aimed at collecting information about objective facts and events, how to measure subjective phenomena, some alternative methods for attacking common measurement problems; shows how to evaluate the extent to which questions are consistently understood and administered, and explains how to evaluate the data resulting from a set of questions. A clearly written book, Improving Survey Questions enables researchers and practitioners to write better survey questions and helps users of survey data to evaluate their data more critically.
Methodology: Who Needs It? by
The literature on social science methods and the issues surrounding them has grown massively and continues to increase. Yet many social scientists are ambivalent about methodology. For some, it plays a central, perhaps even an all-encompassing, role; while, for others, it is desirable only in small amounts, or indeed is regarded as an irrelevance, as a distraction from actually doing research. In this book, Hammersley argues that, in large part, this reflects and is part of a wider problem: the gradual decline of a previously influential academic model of inquiry. This has occurred as a result of ideological challenges and the erosion of the institutional conditions that support academic work. He defends this model, spelling out the demands it places upon social scientists, and examining such issues as the proper role of methodology, the nature of objectivity, the false idea that social scientists should be intellectuals or social critics, the dialectic of academic discussion, the ethics of belief, and the limits of academic freedom. More broadly, he also questions the role of the social research within society and what it means to be a social scientist in the 21st century. Hammersley′s book is engagingly written and controversial. It tackles the major issues of contemporary social research methodology head on and is an essential read for anyone with an interest in this field.
Pro Data Visualization Using R and JavaScript by
Pro Data Visualization using R and JavaScript makes the R language approachable, and promotes the idea of data gathering and analysis. You'll see how to use R to interrogate and analyze your data, and then use the D3 JavaScript library to format and display that data in an elegant, informative, and interactive way. You will learn how to gather data effectively, and also how to understand the philosophy and implementation of each type of chart, so as to be able to represent the results visually. With the popularity of the R language, the art and practice of creating data visualizations is no longer the preserve of mathematicians, statisticians, or cartographers. As technology leaders, we can gather metrics around what we do and use data visualizations to communicate that information. Pro Data Visualization using R and JavaScript combines the power of the R language with the simplicity and familiarity of JavaScript to display clear and informative data visualizations. Gathering and analyzing empirical data is the key to truly understanding anything. We can track operational metrics to quantify the health of our products in production. We can track quality metrics of our projects, and even use our data to identify bad code. Visualizing this data allows anyone to read our analysis and easily get a deep understanding of the story the data tells.
Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods: From Hypothesis to Results by
Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods This user-friendly textbook teaches students to understand and apply procedural steps in completing quantitative studies. It explains statistics while progressing through the steps of the hypothesis-testing process from hypothesis to results. The research problems used in the book reflect statistical applications related to interesting and important topics. In addition, the book provides a Research Analysis and Interpretation Guide to help students analyze research articles. Designed as a hands-on resource, each chapter covers a single research problem and offers directions for implementing the research method from start to finish. Readers will learn how to: Pinpoint research questions and hypotheses Identify, classify, and operationally define the study variables Choose appropriate research designs Conduct power analysis Select an appropriate statistic for the problem Use a data set Conduct data screening and analyses using SPSS Interpret the statistics Write the results related to the problem Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods allows students to immediately, independently, and successfully apply quantitative methods to their own research projects.
Quantitative Research Methods for Communication by
Quantitative Research Methods for Communication: A Hands-On Approach, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and engaging guide to quantitative research. Drawing on their extensive research and teaching experience in the field of communication, authors Jason S. Wrench, Candice Thomas-Maddox,Virginia Peck Richmond, and James C. McCroskey encourage students to take an active, hands-on role in the learning process. After giving students the tools they need to locate, conduct, collect, and present their research, the text provides them with the opportunity to immediately apply these skillsin research scenarios.
Quantitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences by
A strong understanding and appreciation of statistics and quantitative research methods is vital to any graduate student of the social sciences, yet most similar texts do not adequately cover this subject. With this in mind, the author has designed a text suitable for first-year graduatesurvey courses that reviews general statistical theory and methods and explores the problems that quantitative social scientists face in conducting research. The topics covered in this book range from the philosophical basis of scientific research to issues of statistical inference, measurement,scaling, research design, sampling, and problems with missing data. Numerous examples are drawn from a range of specialties to illustrate a variety of practical applications. After providing an overview of the philosophical basis of quantitative social science, the book presents the concepts oftheory formalization and causality. It then moves into more specific areas, focusing extensively on issues of design and data collection. Quantitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences is accessible to students with an intermediate-level background in social statistics and research methods.Professionals will find this detailed yet concise book to be an excellent reference. With over 350 classical and up-to-date citations, Quantitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences has something to offer all social science researchers.
Quantitative Social Research Methods by
Quantitative Social Research Methods explores the entire spectrum of quantitative social research methods and their application, with special reference to the development sector. It provides detailed coverage of all statistical research and analysis method with an emphasis on multivariate analysis techniques, such as regression discriminant analysis, logistic regression, factor, factor, cluster, correspondence and conjoint analysis.The book is thematically arranged in two sections: the first section introduces development research techniques, explores the genesis and scope of social research, research processes and then goes on to explain univariate, bivariate and multivariate data analysis with the help of software packages such as SPSS and STATA. The second focuses on the application of social and development research methods in the development sector. It explores research method application and the issues relevant to aspects of development such as population, health and nutrition, poverty and rural development, education, water and sanitation, and environment and natural resource management.
Research Design by
This book provides the basis for deciding whether to use a qualitative or quantitative approach for the design of a research study and how to write up the results of a study for a journal article or dissertation. Addressing these issues, the author offers a guide to the major design decisions, such as deciding upon a paradigm, stating the purpose of the study, identifying the research questions and hypotheses, using theory and defining and stating the significance of the study.
Research Methods: the Key Concepts by
This invaluable resource provides a comprehensive overview of the many methods and methodologies of social research. Each entry provides a critical definition and examines the value and difficulties of a particular method or methodology of concept across different fields of social research. Concepts include: Action research Chaos theory Discourse analysis Epistemology Literature review Interviewing Social constructivism World view With thematic further reading stretching across the social sciences, Research Methods: The Key Concepts will help readers develop a firm understanding of the rationale and principles behind key research methods, and is a must-have for new researchers at all levels, from undergraduate to postgraduate and beyond.
Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches by
At last, a social research methods text for students and future researchers who will need to use both words and numbers in their research. Using actual examples from psychology, sociology, anthropology, health, and education, the book provides readers with both a conceptual understanding of each technique as well as showing them how to use the technique.
H. Russell Bernard, author of the best-selling textbook Research Methods in Anthropology and a world figure in the social sciences, brings to the researcher and the student the excitement of the research act as never before.
Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches by
This work offers balanced coverage of both the qualitative and quantative approaches to social research. New features for the second edition include a new glossary based on reviewer and student suggestions, and an expanded chapter on library research and writing reports.
Survey Research Methods by
Survey Research Methods presents the very latest methodological knowledge on surveys. Author Floyd Fowler provides students and researchers who want to collect, analyze, or read about survey data with a sound basis for evaluating how each aspect of a survey can affect its precision, accuracy, and credibility. The Fourth Edition has been updated in four primary ways: it much more prominently addresses the growth of the Internet for data collection and the subsequent rapid expansion of online survey usage; it addresses the precipitous drop in response rates for telephone surveys, particularly those based on random-digit dialing; it offers new and expanded coverage monitoring the continued improvement in techniques for presurvey evaluation of questions; and it addresses the growing role of individual cell phone in addition - and often instead of - household landlines. Two new chapters, "The Nature of Error in Surveys" and "Issues in Analyzing Survey Data," further emphasize the importance of minimizing nonsampling errors through superior question design, quality interviewing, and high response rates.
Theory and Methods in Social Research by
This new edition provides a scholarly and readable introduction to all the key qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and methods, enabling postgraduate and masters-level students and new researchers to reflect on which ones suit their needs and to receive guidance on how to find out more. With chapters written by experienced research practitioners, this second edition has been extensively expanded and updated. There are seven completely new chapters, as well as: new material on literature reviews a new introduction to quantitative methods an expanded glossary weblinks with free access to a wide range of peer-reviewed journal articles an annotated bibliography with conversational notes from authors in each chapter. This book will act as your 'expert friend' throughout your research project, providing advice, explaining key concepts and the implications for your research design, and illustrating these with examples of real research studies. Praise for the first edition: "Not merely a how-to book, it reviews the conceptual framework of research methods in the social and behavioural sciences and provides tangible stories from the field that illustrate the application of specific techniques and the process of conducting research. . . . This work affords a concise overview of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the social science. . . . Highly recommended." R.V. Labaree University of Southern California CHOICE Available with Perusall--an eBook that makes it easier to prepare for class Perusall is an award-winning eBook platform featuring social annotation tools that allow students and instructors to collaboratively mark up and discuss their SAGE textbook. Backed by research and supported by technological innovations developed at Harvard University, this process of learning through collaborative annotation keeps your students engaged and makes teaching easier and more effective. Learn more.
Turning Ideas into Research: Theory, Design, and Practice by
How do you turn a really good idea into a really good question, and how do you turn this into successful research? Barbara Fawcett and Rosalie Pockett use their expertise as supervisors and researchers to provide you with the frameworks and the theoretical and practical guidance you need to design, carry out and communicate your research effectively. Using a range of examples that relate research to the real world, they demonstrate: how to develop research questions how to select appropriate theoretical frameworks how to integrate theoretical perspectives with empirical research how to gather and interpret data how to ensure that the research undertaken makes a difference. The authors' user-friendly approach emphasizes the importance of participation, collaboration and inclusivity, and examines worldviews and understandings of knowledge in order to enable greater critical reflection. Chapters provide guidance on achieving impact with your research, and feature reflective questions to enhance your engagement with the issues covered. This text is the ideal companion as you set about transforming your ideas into robust research.