The Uses and Misuses of Data and Models


Book Description

Undeniably, the amount of "information" in our culture has increased by leaps and bounds. At the same time, discussion of values, norms and purpose is often missing from the discourse of social research - especially by those who work within the positivist framework. The authors of this book develop principles to guide the use of data and models in the human sciences. Writing as scholars who are at home with empirical and mathematical social science, yet taking seriously the critiques of this heritage, they propose ways of developing norms without becoming subjective.




The Handbook of Social Research Ethics


Book Description

Brings together international scholars across the social and behavioural sciences and education to address those ethical issues that arise in the theory and practice of research within the technologically advancing and culturally complex world in which we live.







The Behavioral and Social Sciences


Book Description

This volume explores the scientific frontiers and leading edges of research across the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, history, business, education, geography, law, and psychiatry, as well as the newer, more specialized areas of artificial intelligence, child development, cognitive science, communications, demography, linguistics, and management and decision science. It includes recommendations concerning new resources, facilities, and programs that may be needed over the next several years to ensure rapid progress and provide a high level of returns to basic research.




Standard Deviations


Book Description

How statistical data is used, misused, and abused every day to fool us: “A very entertaining book about a very serious problem.” —Robert J. Shiller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Irrational Exuberance Did you know that baseball players whose names begin with “D” are more likely to die young? That Asian Americans are most susceptible to heart attacks on the fourth day of the month? That drinking a full pot of coffee every morning adds years to your life, but one cup a day increases your pancreatic cancer risk? These “facts” have been argued with a straight face by credentialed researchers and backed up with reams of data and convincing statistics. As Nobel Prize–winning economist Ronald Coase cynically observed, “If you torture data long enough, it will confess.” Lying with statistics is a time-honored con. In Standard Deviations, economics professor Gary Smith walks us through the various tricks and traps that people use to back up their own crackpot theories. Sometimes, the unscrupulous deliberately try to mislead us. Other times, the well-intentioned are blissfully unaware of the mischief they are committing. Today, data is so plentiful that researchers spend precious little time distinguishing between good, meaningful indicators and total rubbish. Not only do others use data to fool us, we fool ourselves. Drawing on breakthrough research in behavioral economics and using clear examples, Standard Deviations demystifies the science behind statistics and makes it easy to spot the fraud all around us. “An entertaining primer . . . packed with figures, tables, graphs and ludicrous examples from people who know better (academics, scientists) and those who don’t (political candidates, advertisers).” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)




Index Medicus


Book Description

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.




The Handbook of Marketing Research


Book Description

CHOICE MAGAZINE Outstanding Academic Title for 2007 "In addition to discussing relevant content, the various contributors to the book are excellent communicators. Sentences are clear, paragraphs are coherent, and chapters fulfill the promise of their introductions, and readers will benefit from the diagrams, figures, and charts that are used to enhance the text. I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it highly. This book will be of particular interest to advanced students, academics, and practitioners. Although statistical background is necessary to comprehend the advanced analytical techniques, most readers are likely to benefit from the overviews provided in this well-written book." —Guldem Gokcek, JOURNAL OF MARKETING The Handbook of Marketing Research: Uses, Misuses, and Future Advances comprehensively explores the approaches for delivering market insights for fact-based decision making in a market-oriented firm. Divided into four parts, the Handbook addresses (1) the different nuances of delivering insights; (2) quantitative, qualitative, and online data gathering techniques; (3) basic and advanced data analysis methods; and (4) the substantial marketing issues that clients are interested in resolving through marketing research. Key Features: Appeals to users as well as suppliers of marketing research: Comprehensive topics in marketing research (such as philosophy, techniques, and applications) are delivered in a reader-friendly, applications-oriented, and non-mathematical fashion. Covers many cutting-edge techniques of data collection and analysis: Traditional quantitative techniques, innovative qualitative techniques, and emerging online methods are presented. Provides a broad range of current ideas and applications: The contributors address models of the impact of marketing mix variables, segmentation, brand equity, satisfaction, customer lifetime value, and marketing ROI. Chapters on international marketing research and marketing management support systems are also included.




Intelligent Information Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications


Book Description

This set compiles more than 240 chapters from the world's leading experts to provide a foundational body of research to drive further evolution and innovation of these next-generation technologies and their applications, of which scientific, technological, and commercial communities have only begun to scratch the surface.




Data Mining Applications Using Artificial Adaptive Systems


Book Description

This volume directly addresses the complexities involved in data mining and the development of new algorithms, built on an underlying theory consisting of linear and non-linear dynamics, data selection, filtering, and analysis, while including analytical projection and prediction. The results derived from the analysis are then further manipulated such that a visual representation is derived with an accompanying analysis. The book brings very current methods of analysis to the forefront of the discipline, provides researchers and practitioners the mathematical underpinning of the algorithms, and the non-specialist with a visual representation such that a valid understanding of the meaning of the adaptive system can be attained with careful attention to the visual representation. The book presents, as a collection of documents, sophisticated and meaningful methods that can be immediately understood and applied to various other disciplines of research. The content is composed of chapters addressing: An application of adaptive systems methodology in the field of post-radiation treatment involving brain volume differences in children; A new adaptive system for computer-aided diagnosis of the characterization of lung nodules; A new method of multi-dimensional scaling with minimal loss of information; A description of the semantics of point spaces with an application on the analysis of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan; The description of a new family of meta-classifiers; A new method of optimal informational sorting; A general method for the unsupervised adaptive classification for learning; and the presentation of two new theories, one in target diffusion and the other in twisting theory.