I am looking for people to author chapters in a book on "best practices" in quantitative methods for the social sciences-- a very APPLIED and practical book. The challenge of each chapter is to present the BEST way to do something, why it's better than other methods (if relevant), how to do it (examples encouraged), and if possible, an empirical comparison between the preferred method of doing something and other methods demonstrating its superiority.
Currently, I have 24 chapters on a variety of topics (see list of topics we already have authors committing to below). I am happy to discuss chapters on anything I do not already have.
I'd love to see chapters on:
- best practices in ANOVA (e.g., does it really matter if cell sizes are unequal? how do you know if you have intracell outliers? How do you interpret interactions? How do you test assumptions? Can you really control for initial differences in quasi-experimental design via ANCOVA? What are advanced things/techniques people need to know about? ),
-some more chapters on different aspects of measurement (e.g., I almost had a chapter on modern applications of the multitrait-multimethod matrix, but the author had other committments....),
-and perhaps a couple more chapters on advanced topics in multiple regression (like testing for and interpreting curvilinear effects, interactions, how to graph these things out, etc.).
I don't claim to know all the things that researchers need to know in order to be the best they can be.... if you have a topic you are interested in writing about, email me and we can talk about it. I want this book to be a definitive reference on how to do things RIGHT, the best way we know how.
FYI: the deadline for submission of an initial draft ms would be 3-4 months (e.g., late December, or we can negotiate another submission date if that doesn't work) There is at least one publisher interested right now and my agent is consulting with other publishers to see if others may be interested. I cannot provide details on which publishers might be interested at this point, but will happily do so once the contracts are finalized.
Thanks in advance,
Jason
(please make sure you reply to me at [log in to unmask], not to the list!)
Tentative outline for "best practices" book2. Notes on the use of Data Transformations3. The power of outliers4. How to deal with missing data5. Four assumptions of multiple regression you should always check6. Correcting correlation coefficients correctly7. Effect sizes and confidence intervals for effect sizes8. Predicting the right way: Using multiple regression to create prediction equations9. Using criterion-referenced assessments for setting standards and making decisions: Some conceptual and technical issues.10. History, Philosophy, and applications of resampling11. Estimating inter-rater reliability: Assumptions and implications of three common approaches12. Replication in field studies13. Power analysis14. Logistic regression in the social sciences15. Advanced topics in Logistic regression16. An introduction to Item Response Theory 17. An introduction to Rasch Measurement 18. Four ways to improve your Exploratory Factor Analysis.19. Sample size and subject to item ratio in principal components analysis.20. Hierarchical Linear Modeling: What it is and when researchers should use it.21. Best practices in meta-analysis: the case for using HLM22. Measuring accuracy in psychological research.23. Best practices in Mixed Methods research24. Summary and ethical implications
Jason W. Osborne, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs
PI -- IMPACT evaluation
Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
Office: Poe 602
Phone: (919) 244-3538 (cell)
Fax: (919) 513-1687
email: mailto:[log in to unmask]
My Web page: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jwosbor2/home.html
Educational Psychology Program web page: http://ced.ncsu.edu/ci/ed_psych.html
IMPACT web page: http://ced.ncsu.edu/impact/
Mailing Address:
Curriculum and Instruction,
Poe Hall 602, Campus Box 7801
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC, 27695-7801
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