Data Analysis Techniques

Powell and Connaway:

Statistical Analysis - Concerned with the development and application of methods and techniques for organizing and analyzing data so that the reliability of conclusions based on the data may be evaluated objectively in terms of probability. (Powell pg.261) There are two different types of statistical analysis: theoretical which deals with mathematical aspects of statistics, and applied statistics deals with practical applications of statistics.

Steps involved in statistical analysis (Powell pg. 263-264):

1. Establishing of categories

- The set of categories for any one variable should be derived from a single classifactory principle, which is determined by the research question or hypothesis being investigated.

- Each set of categories should be exhaustive.

- The categories within each set should be mutually exclusive.

- The development of categories should be based on a sound knowledge of the subject matter and an anticipation of likely responses.

2. Coding the data

- Once a category has been established and data assigned to them, it is necessary to convert the new data or responses to numerical code, so that they can be tallied.

- Coding needs to be reliable and consistent.

3. Analyzing the data

- Decide whether to use descriptive statistics, inferential statistics or both.

4. Cautions in testing the hypothesis

- Statistical inferences are based on probability, and one can never rely on statistical evidence alone for a judgment of whether a hypothesis is true. It is also important to remember that a single statistical acceptance of a hypothesis does not prove it to be true with absolute certainty.

Wildemuth:

Content Analysis - the systematic, objective, quantitative, analysis of message characteristics. (Neundorf 2002) The "message" refers to information that travels from source to destination. Content analysis was originally developed to analyze texts such as journal articles, newspapers, books, responses to questionnaires, and transcribed interviews (Wildemuth pg.297).

Identifying the units for analysis - There are two basic types of units of content to define after you have chosen a research question: sampling units and recording units (Riffe 2005). Recording units are the elements of content that are coded (Wildemuth pg. 299). The types of recording units are: physical, conceptual, and temporal. Sampling units are usually collected from the overall population of the text or other media of interest.

Qualitative analysis - A research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns (Hsieh & Shannon 2005). Qualitative content analysis goes beyond merely counting words or extracting objective content from texts to examine meanings, themes, and patterns that may be manifest or latent in a particular text (Wildemuth and Zhang pg. 308).

Discourse analysis - The analysis of discourse. Tends to focus on either the particular types of conversations (the reference interview) or formal texts (professional literature). Such units of information comprise social texts (expressions of our society) and function to support interpersonal relationships, institutions and ideologies within that society (Wildemuth and Perryman pg. 320).

Analytic induction - A specific form of inductive reasoning used to analyze qualitative data. It is a formalized method for developing and refining a theory or hypothesis, directly from the data (Wildemuth and Spurgin pg. 329). The hypothesis and definitions must apply to all cases of your sample.

Variable - A property of an object, person, or event that can take on different values (Howell 2004). They can also be defined and operationalized at different levels of measurement. Nominal variables are those whose possible values are categories, with no true numerical value that can be assigned to them (Wildemuth pg. 339). Ordinal variables are those for which the values can be rank ordered (Bernard 2000). Ratio-level variables are ordered and have values at equal intervals, they have a true zero point (Bernard 2000).

Article Review #2

Schlipp, J. (2010). Creative thinking: A student-centered approach to plagiarism and copyright. Kentucky Libraries, 74(3).

Introduction:

The scope of this article is to help teachers and librarians help promote the correct way to cite and give credit to the person who created the work. The most important aspect of this article is determining the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement. The University of Northern Kentucky library has put together several films and a website dedicated to creative writing of original material and facts about plagiarism and copyright. This article definitely helped me focus on a more narrow scope and what I want to do with plagiarism. I want to develop some sort of lesson plan or material to promote the awareness of plagiarism.

Problem Statement:

According to a Microsoft survey in 2008, more than 50% of today’s teens aren’t familiar with the consequences of copyright laws and illegal downloading (Schlipp 2010). Schlipp intends to raise awareness and give teachers and librarians creative ways to teach this.

Literature Review:

This work draws from a couple of studies from Microsoft and studies collected by the University of Northern Kentucky. This article itself doesn’t extend the research but material held within it can definitely spawn new research. There are several tools at hand and using these and holding another study/survey hopefully can yield some positive results. If they don’t you can see if these lessons and teachings are effective and build from there.

Method:

All research was done digitally through online surveys. The population was strictly teenagers and high school students.

Caveat:

Testing the validity of plagiarism studies is extremely difficult. Who knows if the students are being truthful. It’s very hard to make a factual statement when it’s such a sensitive subject. Students don’t want to say they’re cheating so some bias may occur. Hopefully these lessons and activities well help spread the word on plagiarism and copyright infringement.

Data Collection Techniques

Powell and Connaway:

Sources of error: Error with questionnaires occur frequently, but they are not limited to just questionnaires.

-Researcher bias: When the researcher develops the questionnaire so they receive the desired results.

-Sponsorship bias: When a researchers caters to the sponsors and skews the results.

-Imperfection of design: Weaknesses in the design of the questionnaire can result in innaccurate results.

-Respondent interpretations: Interpretation of "facts" may be skewed.

-Time lapse: Answers to questions tend to vary over time.

-Circumstances: Mood and careless answers can skew results.

-Response bias: Number of respondents may be too low and skew results.

-Reactive insight: Questionnaires can bring up sensitive topics which cause the survey taker to create a bias based on their reaction.

Final editing - There are a couple of suggestions that will make your final survey desirable and easy to take. Making the survey as short as possible will encourage accurate and well thought out answers. Always ask questions that the researcher doesn't already know. Unnecessary and redundant questions should be avoided.

Wildemuth:

Data Collection - Should be a relatively straightforward activity in the case of server-side transaction log studies. Researchers should monitor data logging and ensure that data are being captured as expected. (Wildemuth pg.170)

Transaction Log Analysis - The captured data represent a record of events as they actually occurred, without re-framing and recall errors prevalent in many other data collection methods. The quality of your data will not be dependent on the study participant's memory of the interaction or on his or her ability to describe the interaction. (Wildemuth pg.167)

Think-aloud Protocol - A research method used to understand the subjects' cognitive processes based on their verbal reports of their thoughts during experiments. You request subjects to speak aloud, reporting what they are thinking while they are performing tasks during an experiment. (Wildemuth pg. 178).

Types of think-aloud protocol:

-Concurrent protocols - they allow the subject to first complete tasks without saying anything

-Retrospective protocols - allows the subjects to complete the tasks in a more natural way

Key Concepts - Literature Review

Wildemuth

Middle-ranged Theories - The middle point in which special theories and general theories meet. Middle-range theories are concrete enough to clearly apply to phenomena of interest to a professional field like information and library science, while simultaneously abstract enough to apply to settings beyond the context in which they were developed (Poole, 1985). Special theories apply to a small range of phenomena while general theories apply to a broad range of phenomena and are highly abstract (Wildemuth, 2009).

Grounded Theory - Theory emerges simultaneously with data collection. Rather than testing as existing theory this approach begins to formulate a theory that fits the data as the data emerges (Wildemuth 2009). The grounded theory approach doesn't develop a theory, but it gives us the analysis of qualitative data. Analysis of qualitative data is usually lacking and grounded theories provide us with that data.

Powell and Connaway:

Exploratory survey - can be used to gather information with practical application even though the results can't be anticipated. There are several types of exploratory research and each have their specific functions.

- Literature surveys focus on developing hypotheses based on previous research. Most of the time they are a part of a larger study. Also considered supportive research.

- Experience surveys are surveys that gather and synthesize the experiences of specialists in a particular field. They aim to obtain insight into the relationships between variables rather than get an accurate picture of current practices. Used to gain suggestions for future research. They can also help establish priorities for research.

- Analysis of "insight-stimulating" examples is used to serve as a guide for future research. Tends to be more narrow and specific in scope.

"An exploratory study must always be regarded as simply a first step; more carefully controlled studies are needed to test whether the hypotheses that emerge have general applicability." (Ibid, pg. 65).

Purposes of descriptive surveys:

- Describe characteristics of the population of interest

- Estimate proportions in the population

- Make specific predictions

- Test associational relationships

Developing the Study - Key Concepts

Patten:

Using AND in a database search. The AND function is used in database searches to help narrow and focus your search. The example given by Patten is if you search "learning environments AND dyslexia" the program will identify material that contains both learning environments and dyslexia (Patten pg. 33). Since you used the AND function the search engine will exclude any material that only contains one of the keywords. This is very useful in finding specific material for your research.

Using NOT in a database search. The NOT function also helps narrow down your search in an overloaded database. Patten provides us with an example, searching "advertising NOT television" ensures us that we find articles that contain advertising but excludes television as a medium (Patten pg. 33).

Williamson:

Types of Hypothesis - Operational Hypothesis, Research Hypothesis, Null Hypothesis, Directional Hypothesis and General Hypothesis.

Criteria for good hypotheses:

• be stated in correct terminology
• be as brief and clear as possible
• state an expected relationship between two or more variables
• be testable
• be grounded in past knowledge gained from literature or review (Williamson pg. 57)

Role of theory in research - it informs the research process and helps direct it (Williamson pg. 59). We gain a cumulative approach to research which allows us to build upon our research and make sure there aren't any gaps. The longer the research continues, the more questions are asked which leads to other theories in turn inform the process more thoroughly.

Paul Dobersztyn - Article Review #1

Badke, W. (2007). Give plagiarism the weight it deserves. www.onlinemag.net, 5(31).

Introduction:

Plagiarism is definitely a problem and frowned upon, but there hasn’t been enough education regarding plagiarism. This article describes, what plagiarism is and calls for more education regarding it. It also describes society’s views on sharing and rights regarding copyrighted material. I chose plagiarism as my research topic, but I need to get more specific. This article definitely raised a few interesting points that I need to research further.

Problem Statement:

Educators identify plagiarism as the top offense in the information crimes agenda.

Literature Review:

This article draws from a study from the Center of Academic Integrity (www.academicintegrity.org). Results show that 40% of 50,000 undergraduate students have plagiarized from material found on the internet. According to the article, in a study in 1999 of 50,000 undergraduate students, 77% of the student body didn’t view plagiarism as a serious problem. Badke tries to solve the problem of plagiarism first, by trying to identify the types of plagiarists. Then continues to differentiate between accessibility and permission to appropriate. These concepts are important to know when researching plagiarism, because it gives a good basis to start. Another interesting viewpoint, is how other societies view plagiarism. If someone comes from a country that everything is shared, they could view an individual who claims that they own this property as selfish and insulting. Finally Badke reminds us of the challenge of anti-plagiarism education.

Method:

The article doesn’t include details of the research, but provides a website with the link of the research. I checked the website and the articles published are under review so they were removed.

Caveat:

The study reference in this article is over ten years old, so opinions and numbers could have changed drastically since then. The fact that the website containing the actual research is under review, kind of questions its integrity. I wish I had the actual numbers and values to look at myself. I don’t even know what schools they interviewed, and their basis of selection. Overall this article raised a few good points and questions but definitely lacks in any steady or worthwhile information,

Research Traditions - Key Concepts

Wildemuth:

Research Question - A statement of what you wish to know about some unsatisfactory situation (Wildemuth pg.12). The research question will help you clarify your goals in research and serve at the motivation for your work.

Hypothesis - A conjectural statement of the relation between two or more variables (Wildemuth pg. 33). The research itself is designed to test the truth of the statement.

Williamson:

Tasked-based Research - Research that focuses on the scrutiny of specific tasks. It's not a research methodology, and it's been designed to utilize multiple research methods. This is normally done through observations, user studies, and interviews and from working experience with systems and people. (Williamson pg. 83)

Evaluative Research - A type of applied research that's primary goal is to test the application of knowledge within a specific program or project. Evaluative research usually have large numbers of uncontrolled variables and are carried out in real settings. (Williamson pg. 74)

Patten:

Modified replication - Replication of a hypothesis with some major modifications while using an improved measurement technique. (Patten pg. 31)

Strict replication - Strict replication occurs when you try to mimic all the major respects of to see if the original results re-occur. (Patten pg. 31)