Internet Data Collection


Book Description

The Internet has emerged as a popular medium for collecting data because of its ability to access millions of users, facilitate an array of research designs, & efficiently deliver & compile questionnaires. This volume offers advice on how to utilize the power of the Internet efficiently.




Researching Internet Governance


Book Description

Scholars from a range of disciplines discuss research methods, theories, and conceptual approaches in the study of internet governance. The design and governance of the internet has become one of the most pressing geopolitical issues of our era. The stability of the economy, democracy, and the public sphere are wholly dependent on the stability and security of the internet. Revelations about election hacking, facial recognition technology, and government surveillance have gotten the public's attention and made clear the need for scholarly research that examines internet governance both empirically and conceptually. In this volume, scholars from a range of disciplines consider research methods, theories, and conceptual approaches in the study of internet governance.




Systematic Data Collection


Book Description

The process of collecting accurate data through interviewing, questionnaires, and other methods has not always been clear. However, data collection in field settings can be done in a structured, systematic and scientific way. These authors show us how. First, they focus on the importance of finding the right questions to ask. By providing a variety of formats - triadic comparisons and rating scales for data collection, both oral and written methods - and stressing cultural relativity, Weller and Romney suggest ways to improve not only the data collected, but also the interpretation and analysis of such data. Primarily addressed to qualitative social scientists, this volume is also appropriate for anyone who wants to study attitudes and beliefs. In particular, it is an ideal text for courses in anthropology, linguistics, qualitative research methods, health care, and survey research.




The Data Book


Book Description

The Data Book: Collection and Management of Research Data is the first practical book written for researchers and research team members covering how to collect and manage data for research. The book covers basic types of data and fundamentals of how data grow, move and change over time. Focusing on pre-publication data collection and handling, the text illustrates use of these key concepts to match data collection and management methods to a particular study, in essence, making good decisions about data. The first section of the book defines data, introduces fundamental types of data that bear on methodology to collect and manage them, and covers data management planning and research reproducibility. The second section covers basic principles of and options for data collection and processing emphasizing error resistance and traceability. The third section focuses on managing the data collection and processing stages of research such that quality is consistent and ultimately capable of supporting conclusions drawn from data. The final section of the book covers principles of data security, sharing, and archival. This book will help graduate students and researchers systematically identify and implement appropriate data collection and handling methods.




Internet Research Methods


Book Description

The internet is a compelling tool for research, enabling efficient, cost-effective data collection and facilitating access to large samples and new populations. This book presents a state-of-the-art guide to the internet as a tool for conducting research in the social and behavioural sciences using qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. New to this edition: Fully re-written to reflect the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies Expanded coverage of web surveys for data collection Unobtrusive methods to harvest data from online archives and documents New practical tools and resources, where to find them, and how to keep up-to-date with new developments as they emerge New chapter on research ethics and discussion of ethical practicalities throughout Guiding the reader through the theoretical, ethical and practical issues of using the internet in research, this is an essential resource for researchers wishing to assess how the latest techniques, tools and methods in internet-mediated research may support and expand research in their own field.




The Internet Under Crisis Conditions


Book Description

This report presents findings of a workshop featuring representatives of Internet Service Providers and others with access to data and insights about how the Internet performed on and immediately after the September 11 attacks. People who design and operate networks were asked to share data and their own preliminary analyses among participants in a closed workshop. They and networking researchers evaluated these inputs to synthesize lessons learned and derive suggestions for improvements in technology, procedures, and, as appropriate, policy.




Doing Qualitative Research Online


Book Description

Qualitative researchers can now connect with participants online to collect deep, rich data and generate new understandings of contemporary research phenomena. Doing Qualitative Research Online gives students and researchers the practical and scholarly foundations needed to gain digital research literacies essential for designing and conducting studies based on qualitative data collected online. The book will take a broad view of methodologies, methods and ethics, covering: Ethical issues in research design and ethical relationships with participants Designing online qualitative studies Collecting qualitative data online through interviews, observations, participatory and arts-based research and a wide range of posts and documents. Analyzing data and reporting findings Written by a scholar-practitioner in e-learning and online academia with 15 years’ experience, this book will help all those new to online research by providing a range of examples and illustrations from published research. The text and accompanying materials will offer discussion and assignment ideas for ease of adoption.




Netnography


Book Description

Netnography is an adaptation of ethnography for the online world, pioneered by Robert Kozinets, and is concerned with the study of online cultures and communities as distinct social phenomena, rather than isolated content. In this landmark third edition, Netnography: The Essential Guide provides the theoretical and methodological groundwork as well as the practical applications, helping students both understand and do netnographic research projects of their own. Packed with enhanced learning features throughout, linking concepts to structured activities in a step by step way, the book is also now accompanied by a striking new visual design and further case studies, offering the essential student resource to conducting online ethnographic research. Real world examples provided demonstrate netnography in practice across the social sciences, in media and cultural studies, anthropology, education, nursing, travel and tourism, and others.




Everybody Lies


Book Description

Foreword by Steven Pinker Blending the informed analysis of The Signal and the Noise with the instructive iconoclasm of Think Like a Freak, a fascinating, illuminating, and witty look at what the vast amounts of information now instantly available to us reveals about ourselves and our world—provided we ask the right questions. By the end of an average day in the early twenty-first century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information—unprecedented in history—can tell us a great deal about who we are—the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than twenty years ago, seemed unfathomable. Everybody Lies offers fascinating, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud insights into everything from economics to ethics to sports to race to sex, gender and more, all drawn from the world of big data. What percentage of white voters didn’t vote for Barack Obama because he’s black? Does where you go to school effect how successful you are in life? Do parents secretly favor boy children over girls? Do violent films affect the crime rate? Can you beat the stock market? How regularly do we lie about our sex lives and who’s more self-conscious about sex, men or women? Investigating these questions and a host of others, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz offers revelations that can help us understand ourselves and our lives better. Drawing on studies and experiments on how we really live and think, he demonstrates in fascinating and often funny ways the extent to which all the world is indeed a lab. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. Everybody Lies challenges us to think differently about how we see it and the world.




Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes


Book Description

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.