Human Sciences Methodology

1. Methodology at Tecfa  

• At Tecfa we do not teach methodology. However students get a short briefing on how to plan their MA thesis (slides in PDF format), and then some individual tutoring on a per-needed basis for their master thesis
• DKS also teaches some as a consultant. You can have a look at the slides used in his IDHEAP seminar (in french! for about 20 hours of teaching).

2. Topics - OnLine Documentation  

2.1 General introduction to research methodology  

• Bill Trochim's nice Knowledge Base (Web-based text-book, click on "contents")

2.2 Statistics  

• Electronic Statistics Textbook PASSWORD protected older version, get the newer source from http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html. Very good, from StatSoft the makers of Statistica !
• Statistics Glossary, also from StatSoft.
• HyperStat Online Textbook by David M. Lane at Rice University. Centered on Anova and testing. All entries have links to other sites. See also the related Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics. On a side note: Look at the humor links to take a break.
• PA 765 Statnotes: An Online Textbook by G. David Garson, NC State University. Very good Hypertext with many detailed "chapters", not always suitable for total beginners. Also makes references to SPSS procedures .
• Statistics Glossary, Valerie J. Easton & John McColl, Centre for Applied Statistics, Lancaster University. Good tutoraial-like site, incl. Index.
• Internet For Social Statistics. This is a free online course that shows you how to find statistics (and related informations) on the Internet and how to deal with it..
• Structural Equation Modelling in Market Research by the people who made the AMOS SEM package. Good. (SEM is not for beginners)
• Georgetown AMOS Tutorial (version 4, Intro to the program and simple multiple regression, suitable for beginners)

2.3 Qualitative Research  

• Choosing Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Atlas/ti and Nudist Compared by Christine Barry, Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 3. Note: this on-line journal has other "quali" articles.
• Hypermedia and Ethnography: Reflections on the Construction of a Research Approach, by Bella Dicks and Bruce Mason, Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 3

2.4 Network Analysis  

• Link Analysis: An Information Science Approach" by Mike Thelwall. This site contains extra information related to the book. (webometrics). See also the http://socscibot.wlv.ac.uk/ software that can be used togetehr with the Pajek program
• Pajek is a Program for Large Network Analysis. Here is a text and manual.

2.5 Educational Technology Research  

• What We Know about Research in Instructional Technology: Interviews with Research Leaders

3. Software  

• NetDraw Network Visualization. Free program for visualizing 1-mode and 2-mode social network data (made by Steve Borgatti and Roberta Chase, Analytic Technologies)

4. Methodology Links  

• SEE also larger indexes, such as: the Research Resources for the Social Sciences, the WWW-VL Social Sciences, the Psychology Virtual Library, etc.

4.1 More General  

• Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG). This is a large portal with a lot of links, e.g. Research Methods. Probably on of the best place to start browsing.
• Research Methods Resources On The Www, Mary Sue Stephenson's good index at the University of British Columbia. Another good site for browsing, strong also on qualitative methodology.
• Social Research Methods. Bill Trochim's Center. Very nice Knowledge Base (Web-based text-book, click on "contents") and also Selecting Statistics expert system Program. Also features pointers to tutorials (made by graduate students)
• Research Methodology and Statistics at the sociosite, an other good index
• Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research (ocus is on "how-to" do evaluation research)
• Research Methods Good short list by Mikko Mattila
• PA 765 Research Methodology Links by G. David Garson, NC State University

4.2 Qualitative Research  

• QualPage by Judy Norris. Very good site (traditional academic build)
• The qualitative Research Page by Bobbi Kerlin, also maintains the Qualitative ResearchWebring
• Grounded Theory Methodology Karl "Chuck B." Freiherr von Manteuffel ...
• Qualnet, in particular Qualitative Research Resources

4.3 Network Analysis  

• Social Network References (Good Academic Bibliography, no links) and Dynamic Visualization of Social Networks (part of J.N. cummunings on-line analysis site). Very good links to other software tools.
• Social Network Analysis, Tom Snijders links and methods page
• INSNA International Network for Social Network Analysis, has links to researcher's home pages and tutorials
• Social Network Analysis Links by I.M. Benta (who also wrote the freeware Agna Network Analysis package)

4.4 Quantitative Research  

• Statlib, datasets, scripts for various packages, routines for programmers who want to hack it their own way, etc.
• Methods in Behavioral Research by Paul C. Cozby. Good structured links for experimental research (according to chapters of his book)
• The Quant Corner INDEX by Bobbi Kerlin
• A few links related to Statistics Education by Juha Puranen. Large list of some useful links related to Statistics Education - Online Statistical teaching material, courses , handouts, exercises, articles, datasets. This is the best index I am aware of.

4.5 Associations and Journals on-line  

• Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS) Good quarterly (peer-reviewed multilingual online journal for qualitative research). In addition FQS Reviews, Debates and Conferences. Worth a Visit !
• The Society for Political Methodology and the Political Methodology Section of the APSA. In particular, check out the on line journals like the Political Methodologist

4.6 Data and Question Archives  

• Data Archives List at Keele/UK
• The Question Bank, Social surveys online, sponsored by UK Economic and Social Research Council

5. Finding information on the Internet  

5.1 Open access  

• Directory of Open Access Journals October 2004: 1333 journals in the directory, 328 journals are searchable on article level, 60818 articles are included in the DOAJ service
• Vascoda (excellent German search engine)
• Beat's BiblioNetz (the future ?)

5.2 Commercial offerings  

• ISI Web of Knowledge. Central sales site of ISI's commercial offerings (no access, just propaganda). E.g. current contents, ISI Web of Knowledge (see bases données below for members of swiss universities)
• French articles @ Inist (free index and commercial retrieval service)
• Ingenta/Uncover Web (same for English articles
• Consortium des bibliothèques universitaires Suisses - Bases de données [RESTRICTED access to selected universities for selected services]
• University of Geneva [RESTRICTED access through IP filtering]
  • Electronic journals (liste)
  • Périodiques électroniques en lignes
  • Bases de données