′This book provides an excellent reference guide to basic theoretical arguments, practical quantitative techniques and the methodologies that the majority of social science researchers are likely to require for postgraduate study and beyond′ - Environment and Planning ′The book provides researchers with guidance in, and examples of, both quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis, written by leading practitioners in the field. The editors give a persuasive account of the commonalities of purpose that exist across both modes, as well as demonstrating a keen awareness of the different things that each offers the practising researcher′ - Clive Seale, Brunel University ′With the appearance of this handbook, data analysts no longer have to consult dozens of disparate publications to carry out their work. The essential tools for an intelligent telling of the data story are offered here, in thirty chapters written by recognized experts. ′ - Michael Lewis-Beck, F Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa ′This is an excellent guide to current issues in the analysis of social science data. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for authoritative introductions to the state of the art. Each chapter offers a comprehensive review and an extensive bibliography and will be invaluable to researchers wanting to update themselves about modern developments′ - Professor Nigel Gilbert, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey This is a book that will rapidly be recognized as the bible for social researchers. It provides a first-class, reliable guide to the basic issues in data analysis, such as the construction of variables, the characterization of distributions and the notions of inference. Scholars and students can turn to it for teaching and applied needs with confidence. The book also seeks to enhance debate in the field by tackling more advanced topics such as models of change, causality, panel models and network analysis. Specialists will find much food for thought in these chapters. A distinctive feature of the book is the breadth of coverage. No other book provides a better one-stop survey of the field of data analysis. In 30 specially commissioned chapters the editors aim to encourage readers to develop an appreciation of the range of analytic options available, so they can choose a research problem and then develop a suitable approach to data analysis.

Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications, Second Edition, is a comprehensive professional reference book that guides business analysts, scientists, engineers and researchers, both academic and industrial, through all stages of data analysis, model building and implementation. The handbook helps users discern technical and business problems, understand the strengths and weaknesses of modern data mining algorithms and employ the right statistical methods for practical application. This book is an ideal reference for users who want to address massive and complex datasets with novel statistical approaches and be able to objectively evaluate analyses and solutions. It has clear, intuitive explanations of the principles and tools for solving problems using modern analytic techniques and discusses their application to real problems in ways accessible and beneficial to practitioners across several areas—from science and engineering, to medicine, academia and commerce. - Includes input by practitioners for practitioners - Includes tutorials in numerous fields of study that provide step-by-step instruction on how to use supplied tools to build models - Contains practical advice from successful real-world implementations - Brings together, in a single resource, all the information a beginner needs to understand the tools and issues in data mining to build successful data mining solutions - Features clear, intuitive explanations of novel analytical tools and techniques, and their practical applications

The wide range of approaches to data analysis in qualitative research can seem daunting even for experienced researchers. This handbook is the first to provide a state-of-the art overview of the whole field of QDA; from general analytic strategies used in qualitative research, to approaches specific to particular types of qualitative data, including talk, text, sounds, images and virtual data. The handbook includes chapters on traditional analytic strategies such as grounded theory, content analysis, hermeneutics, phenomenology and narrative analysis, as well as coverage of newer trends like mixed methods, reanalysis and meta-analysis. Practical aspects such as sampling, transcription, working collaboratively, writing and implementation are given close attention, as are theory and theorization, reflexivity, and ethics. Written by a team of experts in qualitative research from around the world, this handbook is an essential compendium for all qualitative researchers and students across the social sciences.

Learn how to use R to turn raw data into insight, knowledge, and understanding. This book introduces you to R, RStudio, and the tidyverse, a collection of R packages designed to work together to make data science fast, fluent, and fun. Suitable for readers with no previous programming experience, R for Data Science is designed to get you doing data science as quickly as possible. Authors Hadley Wickham and Garrett Grolemund guide you through the steps of importing, wrangling, exploring, and modeling your data and communicating the results. You'll get a complete, big-picture understanding of the data science cycle, along with basic tools you need to manage the details. Each section of the book is paired with exercises to help you practice what you've learned along the way. You'll learn how to: Wrangle—transform your datasets into a form convenient for analysis Program—learn powerful R tools for solving data problems with greater clarity and ease Explore—examine your data, generate hypotheses, and quickly test them Model—provide a low-dimensional summary that captures true "signals" in your dataset Communicate—learn R Markdown for integrating prose, code, and results

A Comprehensive Handbook of Statistical Concepts, Techniques and Software Tools.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the most popular method for imaging brain function. Handbook for Functional MRI Data Analysis provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the methods used for fMRI data analysis. Using minimal jargon, this book explains the concepts behind processing fMRI data, focusing on the techniques that are most commonly used in the field. This book provides background about the methods employed by common data analysis packages including FSL, SPM, and AFNI. Some of the newest cutting-edge techniques, including pattern classification analysis, connectivity modeling, and resting state network analysis, are also discussed. Readers of this book, whether newcomers to the field or experienced researchers, will obtain a deep and effective knowledge of how to employ fMRI analysis to ask scientific questions and become more sophisticated users of fMRI analysis software.

Winner of the 2017 AERA Division D Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award! Technological and statistical advances, along with a strong interest in gathering more information about the state of our educational systems, have made it possible to assess more students, in more countries, more often, and in more subject domains. The Handbook of International Large-Scale Assessment: Background, Technical Issues, and Methods of Data Analysis brings together recognized scholars in the field of ILSA, behavioral statistics, and policy to develop a detailed guide that goes beyond database user manuals. After highlighting the importance of ILSA data to policy and research, the book reviews methodological aspects and features of the studies based on operational considerations, analytics, and reporting. The book then describes methods of interest to advanced graduate students, researchers, and policy analysts who have a good grounding in quantitative methods, but who are not necessarily quantitative methodologists. In addition, it provides a detailed exposition of the technical details behind these assessments, including the test design, the sampling framework, and estimation methods, with a focus on how these issues impact analysis choices.

Recent years have seen an explosion in new kinds of data on infectious diseases, including data on social contacts, whole genome sequences of pathogens, biomarkers for susceptibility to infection, serological panel data, and surveillance data. The Handbook of Infectious Disease Data Analysis provides an overview of many key statistical methods that have been developed in response to such new data streams and the associated ability to address key scientific and epidemiological questions. A unique feature of the Handbook is the wide range of topics covered. Key features Contributors include many leading researchers in the field Divided into four main sections: Basic concepts, Analysis of Outbreak Data, Analysis of Seroprevalence Data, Analysis of Surveillance Data Numerous case studies and examples throughout Provides both introductory material and key reference material

Now in its third edition, this classic book is widely considered the leading text on Bayesian methods, lauded for its accessible, practical approach to analyzing data and solving research problems. Bayesian Data Analysis, Third Edition continues to take an applied approach to analysis using up-to-date Bayesian methods. The authors—all leaders in the statistics community—introduce basic concepts from a data-analytic perspective before presenting advanced methods. Throughout the text, numerous worked examples drawn from real applications and research emphasize the use of Bayesian inference in practice. New to the Third Edition Four new chapters on nonparametric modeling Coverage of weakly informative priors and boundary-avoiding priors Updated discussion of cross-validation and predictive information criteria Improved convergence monitoring and effective sample size calculations for iterative simulation Presentations of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, variational Bayes, and expectation propagation New and revised software code The book can be used in three different ways. For undergraduate students, it introduces Bayesian inference starting from first principles. For graduate students, the text presents effective current approaches to Bayesian modeling and computation in statistics and related fields. For researchers, it provides an assortment of Bayesian methods in applied statistics. Additional materials, including data sets used in the examples, solutions to selected exercises, and software instructions, are available on the book’s web page.

For many researchers, Python is a first-class tool mainly because of its libraries for storing, manipulating, and gaining insight from data. Several resources exist for individual pieces of this data science stack, but only with the Python Data Science Handbook do you get them all—IPython, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, and other related tools. Working scientists and data crunchers familiar with reading and writing Python code will find this comprehensive desk reference ideal for tackling day-to-day issues: manipulating, transforming, and cleaning data; visualizing different types of data; and using data to build statistical or machine learning models. Quite simply, this is the must-have reference for scientific computing in Python. With this handbook, you’ll learn how to use: IPython and Jupyter: provide computational environments for data scientists using Python NumPy: includes the ndarray for efficient storage and manipulation of dense data arrays in Python Pandas: features the DataFrame for efficient storage and manipulation of labeled/columnar data in Python Matplotlib: includes capabilities for a flexible range of data visualizations in Python Scikit-Learn: for efficient and clean Python implementations of the most important and established machine learning algorithms