wed sept 9, 2015 scholarly research & resulting products

schedule updates… SPSS Lab – Sept 21 & Oct 26 – Davis Library, room 219 “using information for a purpose” – creative collaboration & narrative storytelling – In-class workshop with Zach Ward, Sept 30 – DSI Comedy Theater – Please go see one show ($6-10)

rationale for today’s class… The more you understand the processes, structures, measures, intricacies, nuances, pitfalls, possibilities and limitations of scientific research, the more sophisticated and informed you become in evaluating the products of research Understanding the vocabulary of research allows you to talk about research products in a more sophisticated and informed manner Side note: consider taking research methods!

learning outcomes for today delineate between 3 basic types of research studies (exploratory, descriptive, explanatory) track down the full-text of a specific article be able to identify specific components in a scholarly research article

How do you define research and how do you think it has changed and will continue to change throughout the years? In what ways has technology made research easier? Difficult? -Travis

LA Times article exercise read the piece on food labeling where does the journalist get her information? try to identify specific studies that she draws from – write down any clues with your neighbor, use the library resources (e-journals or academic search complete) to track down one of the original research studies write down the full citation read the abstract of the article

What year?

Steps in research process Identify topic focus Hypothesis or research questions Explore previous research in the area Design a study to address the research questions or test the hypothesis Collect data Analyze data Interpret data and findings for reader; draw some conclusions; make meaning

Steps in research processSections of journal article Identify topic focusIntroduction Hypothesis, research questions, phenomenon of inquiry Purpose of the study Explore previous research in the area Literature review Design a study to address the research questions or test the hypothesis Methods / research design Collect dataData collection Analyze dataFindings / results Interpret data and findings for reader; draw some conclusions; make meaning Discussion / conclusions

Tandon, P.S., Wright, J., Zhou, C., Rogers, C.B., & Christakis, D.A. (2010). Nutrition menu labeling may lead to lower-calorie restaurant meal choices for children. Pediatrics, 125,

Sections of journal article Introduction Purpose of the study Literature review Methods / research design Data collection Findings / results Discussion / conclusions

one way to think about research approaches is to consider specific goals of the research: – exploration – description – explanation See reading for today, bottom of page 17 (Neuman, W.L. (2009). Understanding research. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.)

exploratory studies typically conducted when little is known about a particular phenomenon often employ a variety of research methods with the goal of learning more about a phenomenon, rather than making specific predictions often have less structured methods research questions are typically broad and open-ended and hypotheses are uncommon

descriptive studies focus on documenting and describing a particular phenomenon main purpose is to provide benchmark descriptions and classifications often used to inform other studies may describe variables and correlations may aim to build some sort of model or mid- range theory describing phenomenon

explanatory studies examine the relationship between two or more variables with the goal of prediction and/or explanation often concerned with establishing causality and because of this require variables of interest to be isolated and studied systematically

prediction vs. explanation it is possible to build predictive models of events without actually understanding anything about WHY such event occur very often researchers stop at prediction and do not pursue explanation

purpose stage in learning process question main audience outcome exploratory learn about something new earliestwhat? varies; usually a researcher general ideas and research questions descriptive provide details on something known middle who? when? how? varies factual details and descriptions; model explanatory build a new model or test existing explanation latewhy? professional researchers test a theory; compare explanations evaluation determine effectiveness of program/policy latedoes it work? practitioners and policy makers practical recommendation Neuman, W.L. (2009). Understanding research. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon

Will research always lead to accurate findings and how personal or impersonal are these findings? -Micheline Measures of Quality

Validity Reliability repeatability reliable across time, that is, if the same researcher would get the same results if he or she did the same study at a different time reliable across samples or across groups of people who are participating in the study is the study actually doing what it says it does internal validity, flaws within the study itself such as design problems or data collection problems external validity, extent to which you can generalize to a larger group or other contexts

Type*PurposeStudy Design** FindingsDiscussion Pediatrics Tandon, Wright, Zhou, Rogers, & Christakis (2010) Health Affairs Elbel, Kersh, Brescoll, & Dixon (2009) American Journal of Public Health Roberto, Larsen, Agnew, Baik, & Brownell (2010) * exploratory /descriptive / explanatory ** participants, data collection, analysis