GWU 202 Readings

Supplemental Internet Readings (Adams)

Topics	W E B R E A D I N G S Always under construction and revision!
Introduction	Translation tips Letter grades Literature review tips RefWorks@GWU Home page for the projection book
Meta-Analysis	Meta-Analysis: Studies of Negative Ads Meta-Analysis: Mail Survey Responses Meta-Analysis: Phonics for Teaching Reading Different Statistical Strategies in Meta-Analysis Good short recap of different approaches to assessing the results from all the studies located using meta-analysis.
SURVEY RESEARCH
Survey Research Introduction	Qualities of Good Questions 20 Questions about Surveys Summary of key issues in evaluating a survey. Pollster.Com/Blog Probably the single best web site for thoughtful and lively discussions of current polling results and controversies. Pollster.Com/Polls - summary of recent poltical polls. Tests and Measures in Social Sciences Compilations of thousands of usable question sets. Major survey firms in the USA. Guide to polling data from the US and the world. Survey Association's Code of Ethics Ethics page links to minimum disclosure standards GWU Battleground Poll: December 2007 Full questionnaire for a recent nationwide survey of 1,000 registered, likely voters, with time-series bar charts of the results and links to partisan analyses of the findings.
Sampling Issues	Sample Size Calculator Interactive calculator for finding the needed sample size. Best Mailing Lists - A leader supplier of mailing lists. Survey Sampling Inc. - Top company selling random (and targeted) samples for telephone and other surveys. Extras: Cell Phone Survey Issues Wm Adams, "Grenada Update" Uses the least orthodox sample that the author ever published, but the beach was beautiful. Pew Study of Response Rates Finds that, despite increasinlgy high refusal rates, respondents are still representative of the population. Jewish Population Survey A large nationwide study of a "rare" population (W.Post, 9/11/03, p.4) which faced major challenges regarding sampling, screening, and response rates.
Internet Surveys	Illustrative web surveys conducted by Wm Adams: EPA National Survey of Cameo Users Bureau of Land Mgt. Employee Survey Online survey software & hosting online surveys: SurveyMonkey.com -- perhaps the best SurveySystem.com SurveyTracker.com Conducting Surveys via E-mail & the Web Executive summary of a good Rand monograph.
STAT RESOURCES
SPSS	SPSS - Web site for the software giant. Good SPSS Tutorials Indiana - Highly detailed tips for getting started and for univariate procedures. Texas - Go to bottom of page for menu for SPSS tutorials; includes some issues (syntax) that apply only to the unabridged SPSS version. Furman - Good for getting started, t-tests, correlation, scatterplots. Current version is very similar to 10.0. Birmingham, UK - Least cluttered presentation with nice graphics; current version is very similar to 10.0. Good SPSS Movies! Texas A&M - Dozens of movies show how to exploit the many features of SPSS; no comment on the charming Texas accent. UCLA - Six helpful movies on getting started with SPSS; plus links to other SPSS resources.
BASIC STATISTICS
Measurement	Levels of Measurement - see links 1, 2, and 3.
Univariate DescriptiveStats	Basic Stats - Interesting site for univariate stats.
Univariate Inferential Statistics	Confidence Interval Calculator Wm Adams, "Opinion and Foreign Policy" - Written during the Cold War, but the basic findings still seem to fit. Illustratess how published references to polls may not always report confidence intervals (1) the author's points do not depend on plus or minus three or four percent and (2) certain audiences can be expected to have a good idea about the general accuracy of major national surveys.
Chi-square & Crosstabs	Significance Tests Chi-square Calculator
EXPERIMENTS (& T-Tests)
Causal Inference & Research Design	Knowledge Base - Perhaps the only online research methods textbook (includes some stats); it has its idiosyncracies, but is mostly mainstream. Primer - a good "Campbell & Stanley" summary
Experiments: Basics	Research Design Basics - a good British overview of "social experiments" (randomized field experiments) Sarcasm & a short-term experiment Twinkies test & another twinkies test
Experiments: Threats	Wm Adams & D. Smith, "Effects of Telephone Canvassing..." - one of the first published studies of a field experiment testing a campaign technique.
T-tests	*Wm Adams et al., "Power of The Right Stuff"*
External Validity	Generalizing from students to professionals?
QUASI-EXPERIMENTS (& Multivariate Stats)
Quasi-Experiments & Correlational Designs	Diverse Definitions of Quasi-Experiments. N.C. HIV Testing study (large pdf file) Father Absence & Youth Incarceration - Example of a correlational study
Time Series	Longitudinal Research - a British tutorial "Crime & Punishment..." M. Reynolds
Bivariate Correlation	Guess r from the scatterplot - an excellent interactive way to acquire a good idea of what correlations look like. Other versions are here and here. Instant regression line - as you click points for a scatterplot, it draws the regression line and calculates r More regression fun - more elements to manipulate, plus watch things change when you drag an outlier closer. Regression analysis with SPSS - a good tutorial Wm Adams, "As New Hampshire Goes..." (wait a moment for entire article to load)
Scatterplots	"Gapminder" - surely the most amazing live-action scatterplot on the web today! World Trends, 2005 - a remarkable presentation with moving scatterplots and other brilliant graphics; just click on "full screen," then start clicking "start," and prepared to be impressed. "Treemap" - an odd name for a clever system using size, color, and position to graphically display several variables; not a scatterplot, but very cool. (These are sometimes called "mosaic" displays.)
Multiple Regression	Wm Adams, "Whose Lives Count?" The Longevity Game - based on an underlying multiple regression equation that recalculates each time you change the unstandardized slope for a predictor variable.
OTHER METHODS AND ISSUES
Getting Published Soon	*Pi Alpha Alpha Online Journal* GWU's Policy Perspectives Methodological Jargon Generator
Content Analysis	Wm Adams,"TV News & Terror in Cambodia" Vanderbilt TV New Archive CA Software: Listings & Summaries & Reviews
Focus Groups	What are Focus Groups? - Short summary of focus groups issues. Focus Groups - a fairly similar British perspective with minor variations.
Case Studies	Types of Case Studies - a short summary Case Study Methods - a good practical GAO summary
Electronic Audience Response Systems	"Perception Analyzer"
Additional Ethical Issues	Stanford Prison Experiment - Despite Zimbardo's "agenda" and other shortcomings, a chilling study. Milgram's Shocking Experiment Thoughts on Milgram & Zimbardo Controversy over the medical use of placebos Johns Hopkins experiment on lead poisoning Proper Citations for Internet References National Academy of Sciences, "On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research" "Humanity at Last Alone" by William Pfaff - As the West abandons its traditional basis for ethics.
Summary and Review	Report Evaluation- Important characteristics of a good report of an empirical research study. Key Questions - List of essential questions to answer when designing or evaluating an empirical research study.
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