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- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
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Bergin (2018)
Tiffany Bergin (Author profile: LinkedIn)
An Introduction to Data Analysis: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods (Publisher blurb)
(Sage 2018)
Initial comments: (posted 29 May 2020)
Also available on Researchgate (200 reads by 4 Oct 2021)
Tiffany Bergin is clearly an experienced and effective teacher, reminiscent of the late Cathie Marsh (both authors taught research methods at Cambridge). This book is informed by professional experience outside academia and is recommended as required reading in research methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) for courses in sociology, social policy and related areas. It can serve either as a course text or as a self-teaching aid.
Well organised and easy to use, written in a no-nonsense style, addressing the reader throughout as "you" with emphasis on learning by doing hands-on with real data, it is full of sound practical advice and stresses the importance of organising your work and especially on communicating your findings.
All chapters have a contents overview at the beginning and a summary at the end followed by recommendations for further reading, all of which appear in the Index, but not all in the References. A particularly nice feature is the insertion at key points of Stop and Think and Let's try this boxes. As well as practical exercises, there are also exercises to make you think: all too rare in textbooks.
URLs are given but there is no companion website, so readers will have type in their own. (I will do this when I have time and post a list here.
The list of references is huge (Except for Bryman & Cramer (1994) Popper (1959) Tukey (1977) and Van der Eynden et al (2011) I've never heard of any of them). Van der Eynden et al (2011) has been superseded by Corti et al (2014) Field (2009) appears on page 127, but there is no mention of his website Statistics Hell: he is mentioned in the index, but is not listed in the references. Abrams (1951) [1]and Marsh (1982)[2], Marsh (1988) [3] , Marsh & Elliott (2008) [4] and de Vaus (2009) [5] get no mention at all.
Examples of research based policy changes include identifying the cause of the London smog of ?? (this reviewer remembers the Manchester smog of 1965 when he could hear a bus conductor guiding his driver on foot and saying, "Hang on there's a car here!" but not the cholera epidemic.
Some lengthy and detailed statistical calculations appear unexpectedly and are possibly overwhelming: these interrupt the narrative flow and might be better consigned to an appendix.
There will be further comments when I've worked my way through the detailed examples.
[1] Mark Abrams Social Surveys and Social Action (Heinemann, 1951)
[2] Catherine Marsh, The survey method: the contribution of surveys to sociological explanation
(George Allen and Unwin 1982)
[3] Catherine Marsh, Exploring Data: An Introduction to Data Analysis for Social Scientists (Polity Press, 1988)
[4] Catherine Marsh & Jane Elliott, Exploring Data: An Introduction to Data Analysis for Social Scientists
(2nd edition, Polity Press 2008)
[5] David de Vaus Surveys in Social Research (6th edition, Routledge, 2014)
An Introduction to Data Analysis: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods (Publisher blurb)
(Sage 2018)
Initial comments: (posted 29 May 2020)
Also available on Researchgate (200 reads by 4 Oct 2021)
Tiffany Bergin is clearly an experienced and effective teacher, reminiscent of the late Cathie Marsh (both authors taught research methods at Cambridge). This book is informed by professional experience outside academia and is recommended as required reading in research methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) for courses in sociology, social policy and related areas. It can serve either as a course text or as a self-teaching aid.
Well organised and easy to use, written in a no-nonsense style, addressing the reader throughout as "you" with emphasis on learning by doing hands-on with real data, it is full of sound practical advice and stresses the importance of organising your work and especially on communicating your findings.
All chapters have a contents overview at the beginning and a summary at the end followed by recommendations for further reading, all of which appear in the Index, but not all in the References. A particularly nice feature is the insertion at key points of Stop and Think and Let's try this boxes. As well as practical exercises, there are also exercises to make you think: all too rare in textbooks.
URLs are given but there is no companion website, so readers will have type in their own. (I will do this when I have time and post a list here.
The list of references is huge (Except for Bryman & Cramer (1994) Popper (1959) Tukey (1977) and Van der Eynden et al (2011) I've never heard of any of them). Van der Eynden et al (2011) has been superseded by Corti et al (2014) Field (2009) appears on page 127, but there is no mention of his website Statistics Hell: he is mentioned in the index, but is not listed in the references. Abrams (1951) [1]and Marsh (1982)[2], Marsh (1988) [3] , Marsh & Elliott (2008) [4] and de Vaus (2009) [5] get no mention at all.
Examples of research based policy changes include identifying the cause of the London smog of ?? (this reviewer remembers the Manchester smog of 1965 when he could hear a bus conductor guiding his driver on foot and saying, "Hang on there's a car here!" but not the cholera epidemic.
Some lengthy and detailed statistical calculations appear unexpectedly and are possibly overwhelming: these interrupt the narrative flow and might be better consigned to an appendix.
There will be further comments when I've worked my way through the detailed examples.
[1] Mark Abrams Social Surveys and Social Action (Heinemann, 1951)
[2] Catherine Marsh, The survey method: the contribution of surveys to sociological explanation
(George Allen and Unwin 1982)
[3] Catherine Marsh, Exploring Data: An Introduction to Data Analysis for Social Scientists (Polity Press, 1988)
[4] Catherine Marsh & Jane Elliott, Exploring Data: An Introduction to Data Analysis for Social Scientists
(2nd edition, Polity Press 2008)
[5] David de Vaus Surveys in Social Research (6th edition, Routledge, 2014)