If my office location being in Ann Arbor, Michigan doesn’t tip you off to my collegiate sports allegiance, then this will. In 1983, University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler addressed his team with a motivational talk…
When Apple’s ResearchKit was announced, almost immediately some squawked about the ethical problems that may be raised by its use. One argument suggested that because teens use iPhones, and because teens “aren’t supposed to take part in medical studies without parental consent” this would be bad. The argument proceeds…
Use this as a checklist for your own studies – or as a tool to evaluate survey research collaborators. Researchers who do not consider each of these elements will make disastrous mistakes. A solid researcher is not one who is perfect – it is one who learns from past mistakes. Here are the final six (of twelve)…
Ready to Launch a Survey? It’s just a press of a button, right?
How I wish that were the case! As with any science, care must be taken to ensure there is a consistent application. Bias introduced by inconsistencies in the study implementation is not desirable. Survey researchers can minimize such bias by…
Survey research is a part of the scientific process – and even a science on its own. So why do researchers abandon the science when they implement their studies? An astronomer would not go to the hobby store to buy a telescope to study the galaxy. A geneticist would never purchase non-sterile test tubes from an unknown source to capture saliva samples from research subjects. So why do social scientists routinely treat their own data collection tools this way?
I hope you have enjoyed reading the past 6 posts to our new blog – the Launch Pad. If you have not yet read them, I encourage you to go back to the beginning and read about our story. I have certainly enjoyed writing them!
I look forward to using this blog to write about and share our experiences. While I expect the focus will adapt as we ourselves evolve, the plan will be…
The Beginning: From Rubber Bands to Plastic Bags to Survey Sciences Riding from house to house on my scooter, aiming to "porch" every edition of the San Jose Mercury News that I could (especially for the big tippers in the small ranch on the corner), the 16-year-old...
As with any naming – be it a business, a child, a service – there is an internal gut feeling that one must be comfortable with. It is that internal check that…
With six names to choose from, it was time to make a decision. Today I will emphasize the process of elimination…