Adèr: ARM: Selected topics 2011

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________________ Advising on research methods: Selected topics 2011 results from a research master course Methodological Advice that was given at the University of Amsterdam in the fall of 2011 by Don Mellenbergh and Herman Adèr.

The objectives of this course were:

(a) to acquire methodological knowledge that is needed for advising researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, and
(b) to get experience with methodological consultancy. The main material for the course was the book:
Advising on research methods: a consultant’s companion
by Herman J. Adèr, Gideon J. Mellenbergh and David J. Hand. See: ARM book.
The students had to fulfill various assignments, one of which was to write a paper on a topic that may come up during methodological consultancy.
In the beginning of the course, paper topics were selected from a long list of relevant methodological issues. The student who selected the topic was the first author and he or she was assisted by a co-author (one of the other students).
The publication process of drafting, submitting, reviewing, adapting and correcting was the same as with the production of any other edited paper collection.
Six students participated in the course. They made the following contributions to the book:

Anja Sommavilla and Corinne Brenner discuss the pathway of going from a substantive research question to a statistical model. They show how a substantive question is transformed into a graphical representation, and how this representation in turn is transformed into a statistical model.

Corinne Brenner and Charlotte Gaasterland discuss Internet sampling methods. They describe advantages and disadvantages of Internet sampling, and they mention payoffs of this data collection method.

César-Reyer Vroom and Daniel Bannan discuss Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT). They give an introduction into Item Response Theory (IRT), and they describe how IRT models are applied in CAT.

Daniel Bannan and César-Reyer Vroom discuss stepwise model selection methods in regression analysis. They identify pitfalls of stepwise model selection, and they mention methods to avoid them.

Charlotte Gaasterland and Mattis van den Bergh give an introduction into survival analysis. They describe the situations where survival analysis can be applied, and they explain how it can be implemented in SPSS.

Mattis van den Bergh and Anja Sommavilla discuss mixed methods designs that combine quantitative and qualitative research methods. They give reasons for the use of mixed methods designs, and they describe different types of these designs.

CONTENTS
From research question to statistical model
by Anja Sommavilla and Corinne Brenner
Pitfalls and payoffs in Internet sampling
by Corinne Brenner and Charlotte M. W. Gaasterland
Introduction to Computerized Adaptive Testing
by César-Reyer Vroom and Daniel A. Bannan
A critique of stepwise model selection methods
by Daniel A. Bannan and César-Reyer Vroom
A short introduction into survival analysis
by Charlotte M. W. Gaasterland and Mattis van den Bergh
On the relevance of mixed methods
by Mattis van den Bergh and Anja Sommavilla

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