A New Agenda for Interdisciplinary Survey Research Methods, (A): Proceedings of the CASM II Seminar
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/casm2pro.pdf
This is the proceedings publication from the CASM II (Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology) Seminar, held in the USA in 1997 for researchers. Sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Science Foundation and other US government statistical agencies, the seminar explained the history of CASM, examined cognitive issues inherent in interdisciplinary survey methods and suggested future research. Abstracts and summaries of the main papers are available, alongside reports from the seminar working groups and a transcript of interviews with early practitioners in the field. The proceedings are available as a PDF file - you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to download them.
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Abstracta Iranica
http://abstractairanica.revues.org/
Abstracta Iranica is an annual review published by the Institut Français de Recherche en Iran-IFRI. It provides abstracts and critical reviews of books, articles and papers covering all aspects of Iranian studies in the preceding year. This includes coverage of Iranian history, religion, politics culture, philosophy and literature. There is also extensive coverage of Islamic and Muslim culture and politics. Iranian studies is defined widely to include coverage of the geographical areas of Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan. Issues from 2004 onwards can be downloaded. Most abstracts are offered in French only.
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Academic Careers Observatory
http://www.iue.it/MaxWeberProgramme/AcademicCareers/Index.shtml
The Academic Careers Observatory is an initiative of the Max Weber Programme, a postdoctoral studies programme part of the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). It is intended as is an on-line resource for PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows and researchers who wish find information about careers and research funding opportunities in EU nations and some other regions of the world (such as North America and Australia). It is possible to browse the database by country or subject discipline . Each country file explains the educational structure, qualifications and recruitment process for academic careers. The site also maintains links to major international job databases, and directories of research funding. There are links to relevant conference listings and discussion forums.
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Acronyms used by Asian / Pacific Studies' scholars: a dictionary
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ACR/Acronyms.html
This site is maintained by Dr T. Matthew Ciolek and John Noyce as part of the Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library . It provides free access to an online dictionary of over 2,400 terms, abbreviations and acronyms used by Asian studies scholars. They include terms relating to political parties, lobbying groups, religious organisations, major research groups and geographical entries. The dictionary may be searched or browsed. Entries susally have links to the website of the organisation concerned. Information on last updates is provided on the homepage.
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American Association for Public Opinion Research
http://www.aapor.org/
Website of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR): a professional organisation for researchers and practitioners in the field of public opinion and survey research. The main focus of the AAPOR is on professional standards and advancing research theory and methodology. The site includes information about the organisation, press statements and publications, details of ethics and standards endorsed by the AAPOR, membership details and links to the organisation's online journal entitled Public Opinion Quarterly.
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American Evaluation Association
http://www.eval.org/
This is the website of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), which describes itself as 'an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation'. The AEA defines evaluation as 'assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness'. The Association aims to enhance current practices in evaluation; to encourage use of it; to raise the image of the evaluation profession and to ensure recognition of evaluation as a source of information about human activity. This website gives information on membership, publications, events and special subject interest groups. Useful Web links and a number of RSS feeds are also provided.
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Archives Made Easy
http://www.archivesmadeeasy.org/
An online guide to archives around the world. Archives Made Easy is hosted by the International History Department of the London School of Economics and provides a list of archive reviews by country. The aim is to provide information about the costs and processes involved in an archive visit which can be used by researchers when planning a visit to an archive. Reviews are provided by researchers and include a URL (where possible) for the institution and a link to an 'Easy Archive Tip' document which can be downloaded in Microsoft Word format. The 'Easy Archive Tip' document includes information such as directions, opening hours, any registration requirements and general working conditions. Only reviewed archives will appear on the website. Researchers are invited to submit reviews, there is a link to an 'Easy Archive Tip' template form (in Microsoft Word format) which can be completed and returned to the website Webmaster.
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Assessment and development of new methods for the analysis of media content
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/
This ESRC project aims to 'evaluate and develop methods for the analysis of media content, in particular news'. The website offers news about the project and related events and a useful Resources section, which contains information on the collection, preparation and analysis of media data and an overview of the methodologies used in media research. The site also provides a comparison of software packages for qualitative data analysis. Links are provided to full-text papers and journal articles, programs, and related websites and organisations.
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Association for Survey Computing
http://www.asc.org.uk/
Website of the the Association for Survey Computing (ASC), 'the premier professional association for Survey Computing in the UK'. Originally known as the Study Group on Computers in Survey Analysis (SGCSA), ASC was created in 1971 in order to help 'improve knowledge of good practice in survey computing and to disseminate information on techniques and survey software'. The site includes organisational details, access to the ASC web-based newsletter entitled Survey Computing, an up-to-date software register and links to many survey related resources.
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Association of Internet Researchers
http://www.aoir.org/
The Association of Internet Researchers is a US based organisation of academic researchers. It is multidisciplinary in nature and aims to be 'a resource and support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders'. Details about AoIR's conferences can be viewed via the website alongside information on joining the organisation. A mailing list, blog and wiki are also available, though only members can post. There is also an ethics recommendations document available for those undertaking social science research utilising the Internet. The ethics document is in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view it.
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Audience Dialogue
http://www.audiencedialogue.net/
The Audience Dialogue website aims to provide 'useful information for communicators of all kinds: broadcasters, publishers, NGOs, arts groups, webmasters, educators... and anybody else who's interested in using research-based methods to make their organizations more effective'. The site has three main areas: tools (both qualitative and quantitative); techniques, and cases and examples. There are links to four online books by Dennis List, who runs the Audience Dialogue consultancy firm. The full text of his PhD thesis: 'Scenario Network Mapping: The Development of a Methodology for Social Inquiry' is also on the website. Most materials are geared towards carrying out media research, but the methods described may be of interest to anyone undertaking research involving users of a service. The website has an extensive index of glossaries and lots of other useful resources.
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Australasian Evaluation Society
http://www.aes.asn.au/
The Australasian Evaluation Society is an organisation for professionals involved in evaluation. Members include teachers, students and professional practitioners from both the public and the private sector. It aims to 'improve the theory, practice and use of evaluation' and it does this by providing training, networking opportunities, ethical guidelines, producing publications and promoting evaluation in general. The website contains some content that is available to members only, but there are some published reports freely available as downloads, alongside tables of contents for the society's journal: Evaluation Journal of Australia. Complete past issues of their journal are available as .pdf files (except Volume 1 Number 1,) and articles from them can also be downloaded separately. The current issue is available online to members only. Also available are a code of ethics and guidelines for ethical evaluations, as well as links to other sites of interest.
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Basic Business Research Methods
http://www.managementhelp.org/research/research.htm
Intended for both profit and non-profit organisations, this site is of interest to the wider social science community, as long as it is understood that by research methods, the author means finding out 'what information you need to collect in order to make major decisions about a product, service, program, etc'. The author is Carter McNamara, of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, and the information he offers centres around case studies, interviews, questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. Some of the information is original to the author; the rest is a collection of material from other Internet resources, arranged under simple subject headings. The website also provides links to more general information for business and management researchers.
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BIAS
http://www.bias-project.org.uk/
BIAS, is based at Imperial College, London, and is a node of the Economic and Social Research Council's National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). The project aims to "develop a set of statistical frameworks for combining data from multiple sources and improve the capacity of social science methods to handle the intricacies of observational data". The website includes information on relevant training courses and materials, research publications (some of which is available in full text) and links to downloadable software, such as R and WinBUGS.
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Business Research Methods
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199284986
Webpage for the 2007 edition of this textbook from OUP, by Alan Bryman and Emma Bell. It provides a good introduction for students or lecturers. It covers research strategies and designs; interviewing, software; qualitative versus quantitative research; methods such as focus groups; analysing and writing up the research. There is a summary of the book and chapter headings. You can link to the publisher's Website which has sample material from the book.
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Campbell Collaboration
http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/
The Campbell Collaboration (C2) is an international research network set up in February 2000. Their mission is to help "people make well-informed decisions by preparing, maintaining and disseminating systematic reviews in education, crime and justice, and social welfare." They produce systematic reviews of the effects of social interventions. Campbell is based on voluntary cooperation among researchers of a variety of backgrounds.
Campbell's strategic and policy making body is the Steering Group. It also currently has five Coordinating Groups: Social Welfare, Crime and Justice, Education, Methods, and the Users group. The Coordinating Groups are responsible for the production, scientific merit, and relevance of the systematic reviews. The Campbell Collaboration publishes these systematic reviews electronically and maintains them in the light of fresh evidence and advances in methodology.
There is a online Campbell Library of these reviews created in June 2009 with basic and advanced search facilities. The documents are downloadable in .pdf format.
In addtition there are details about their annual colloquium, how to produce a systematic review, the organisation itself and an online resource centre of useful tools.
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CAMSIS: Social Interaction and Stratification Scale
http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/
The CAMSIS project aims to create 'an internationally comparative assessment of the structures of social interaction and stratification across a number of countries'. At the centre of the assessment is the construction of occupational scales for each country. These are based on the CAMSIS (Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratification) scale, which uses occupational groups as its basic units. The website explains this method of measuring stratification and has information on the project work done in different countries. The site is hosted by Stirling University.
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Casting the Net: Surveying an Internet Population
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue1/smith.html
This paper was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication in June 1997 by Christine B Smith. (JCMC vol.3 no.1). It discusses the differences between email and "snail" mail in research questionnaires. It also covers 'practical issues of web-surveying ... such as programming pitfalls, sample-building, and incentives.' The paper is provided in HTML format.
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Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research
http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/
The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research is 'an inter-disciplinary research centre in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester'. Their research areas include: analysis of census and survey data, locality based studies, and confidentiality and privacy issues. A number of working papers and other publications are provided on the site, although some of these are only available in PDF format and so require Adobe Acrobat Reader to access them.
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Cato Journal
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/index.html
Published 3 times a year in hard copy by the 'market liberal' Cato Institute since 1981, The Cato Journal describes itself as a 'resource for scholars concerned with questions of public policy', with a particular interest in articles written from a right-of-centre viewpoint on economic policy (both US domestic and international), international trade, and social and educational issues. All volumes are available online in PDF format.
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Center for Social Organization of Schools
http://web.jhu.edu/csos
The Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS) is a centre for research and development in education and was established at Johns Hopkins University (Maryland, USA) in 1966. Its main areas of research include investigations into how the social organisation of schools impacts on school effectiveness and students' levels of achievement, how to enable the change from education to work successfully and how to develop learning environments which improve student motivation. The CSOS website provides information about the Center's current research activities, research methods and accomplishments to date.
There are links to a variety of projects which are subdivisions of the Centre or are woking in partnership with it . Links are also provided to their list of publications via these project websites and there are details about any upcoming conferences.
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Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cedar/
The Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) was established in 1987 at Warwick University. It undertakes research on a wide range of educational issues. " These usually focus on the interface between policy and practice and include research into new government initiatives across the age range of pre-school to higher education and continuing professional practice." They specialise in researching the arts and special educational needs/inclusion through a subgroup known as The Psychology and Special Needs Research Unit (PSNRU).
CEDAR emphasises combined methods research undertaken in multi-disciplinary teams. A number of projects concern the evaluation of new educational initiatives, again varying across the age ranges and across the traditional locations of schools, colleges and universities to include the cultural sector and health service. Research is also undertaken which concerns the nature of teaching and learning and the needs of children and adult learners. Research is also designed to develop methodology. This site gives details of the centre's research activities, current and past projects, staffing and details of their publications and access to CEDAR's online newsletter.
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Centre for Evidence Based Public Health Policy
http://www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk/Evidence/Evidence.html
The Centre is part of the ESRC's Evidence Network, an initiative to promote the concept of evidence based practice and policy in the social sciences. The Centre's aim is 'to contribute to an evidence base for UK public health policy and practice that is relevant, accessible and quality-assured, to serve the needs of policy users, practitioners and academics'. The website contains details of current research, contact details and relevant links.
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Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice
http://cemmap.ifs.org.uk/
The Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (cemmap) is an ESRC funded research centre at UCL. It "provides a focus for development, understanding and application of methods for modelling individual behaviour, the influences on it and the impact of policy interventions". Cemmap works with the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) to develop research tools and training for social science practitioners. They organise courses, seminars, conferences and masterclasses to promote their work and enable academics in this area to come together. The website provides details of current research areas and publications plus a list of all their staff and fellows. Copies of the Cemmap working papers can be downloaded free of charge from the website as can papers from their masterclasses and conferences.
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Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics
http://www.crb.uu.se/?lang=en
The Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics is an organisation for researchers from various biomedical disciplines at Uppsala University. The website provides details about its seminars and symposia, staff and research activities, and publications of the centre.
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