by Vera Oko Anyone who has pursued or started a PhD is familiar with the rite of passage and the academic milestone known as the Comprehensive
Read MoreGlossary of Common Academic Acronyms and Jargon (Canada & U.S.)
Below is a list of some common acronyms and jargon academics tend to throw around. Send us an email to add more terms that made
Read MoreFive Online Tools for Doing Social Research
by Vera Oko Since the late 20th century—and especially with the rise of Google, new technologies, and AI—the academic landscape has evolved to offer significant
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Writing Prompts to Overcome Writer’s Block
by Vera Oko Just like creative writers, academic writers experience writer’s block—a state where ideas and words refuse to flow, making writing feel impossible. In
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Please stop starting letters like this…
Dear Admissions/Grant Funding/Whatever committee, My name is Phyllis Rippey and I’m applying for your program in _______________. blah blah blah… Sincerely, Phyllis Rippey Please, for
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16 Tips for Succeeding in Graduate School
by Farinaz Basmechi Embarking on graduate school can seem overwhelming. It necessitates mastering the art of multitasking within strict time constraints. To assist you in
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Reading Social Research
Before we can write social research, we need to read it. When we’re just starting out, reading the large volumes of material we need to
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Qualitative Methodologies
There are numerous theories that underlie qualitative methods that depend on what the research is to focus on, the methods (i.e. the techniques) to be
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What is Science?
There are many epistemological approaches one could take to understanding the world. Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know is what
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Finding a Research Question
Deciding what to research can often be the hardest challenge for students. Often they know generally what they want to do but struggle to figure
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Why Do We Need Theory?
There are some students who love theory and are uninterested in methods and others who love methods and struggle with theory. I would say that
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Methodology vs. Methods
Methodology refers to systems of techniques for how one should or could carry out research. Methods are the specific tools or techniques used to carry
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Qualitative vs (?) Quantitative
Because of how the research is carried out, qualitative and quantitative research often get separated as though they are two competing research methodologies. I prefer
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Sampling Decision Flowchart
Sampling refers to who (or what) is going to be included in your analysis. We may have an fascinating research question and innovative design but
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Typical Research Paper Outline
Although there are differences across journals, methodologies, and disciplines for how one is to organize a research paper. In general, a basic research paper in
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Taking Feedback from your Supervisor
Read all of the feedback you get before drawing conclusions, starting to address any concerns, or giving up. Spell check before handing any work over,
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Good Writing Checklist
Below is a checklist you can use to help guide your writing, whether it’s for a term paper, a thesis, or a peer-reviewed publication. Good
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A Formula for the Introduction
Sometimes starting a paper feels like the hardest part, especially you when have a lot of information in your head you just want to get
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Lit Review vs. Theory Section
A “lit review” or a literature review or a review of the literature is the section of a research paper that provides an overview of
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Methods Section Components
The methods section of a research paper is kind of like the instructions you get with a piece of furniture from IKEA. It tells you
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Submitting Articles
Once you’ve decided where you want to send an article for publication, you might be wondering what to do next. You will need to prepare
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Where to Send your Research
Once you’ve decided that you want to publish your research in a journal, deciding exactly where to publish it can be a whole new project
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Ranking Publications
There are a ton of choices in terms of deciding what kind of publication one can pursue. This world of choices can seem overwhelming, often
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Predatory Publishers
I remember the first time I got an email from a publisher saying they’d like to turn my dissertation into a book. My ego suggested
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10 Basic Rules for Data Analysis
Always save a clean version of your data that you do not touch (especially if accessing your data is difficult) / Never save over your
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Levels of Measurement
Any statistics you calculate requires knowing what the level of measurement is, which means that you gotta know this to get very far with statistics.
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Frequency Tables
FREQUENCY TABLESFrequency tables are kind of what they sound like: tables that show the frequency (or how many times) a particular response is given. These
Read MoreCalculating a mean or standard deviation from a frequency table
Calculating a mean or a standard deviation is not something done all that often, given that you can only calculate such statistics with interval or
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Samples vs. Populations
When doing social research, what we care about most are populations, but what we have access to are samples. Samples are subsets of a population
Read MoreBeware of online consumer surveys
Funny story… so, a “friend” of mine may have a bit of an obsession with a particular app that allows a person to decorate rooms.
Read MorePros & Cons of SPSS
Carrying out statistical analyses by hand can only take you so far. Usually, we need computers to help us manage large amounts of data. One
Read MoreOpening Data in SPSS
Step 1. Open SPSS on your computer The first screen that’ll pop up asks what data you want to open. I usually just ‘x’ out
Read MoreExploring Data in SPSS
Before setting out to analyse or recode any variables, one needs to know what’s going on with the variables of interest. A few ways to
Read MoreRecoding Variables in SPSS
After you’ve opened your data in SPSS and explored your data, you will likely want to recode some or all of your variables. Perhaps you
Read MoreSplitting Data by a Variable
The steps you need to calculate any statistics split into the different categories of a variable in SPSS, with a VIDEO!
Read MoreCalculating Measures of Central Tendency in SPSS
Measures of central tendency–such as the mean, median, and mode–tell us about the general trend of the cases in our sample. Do the responses fall closer to one end of the distribution or another? Are people generally high or low; young or old; or whatever might be our variable. To get these statistics using the pull-down menus in SPSS, follow the following steps.
Read MoreCalculating Confidence Intervals in SPSS
Statistical estimation is the technique of making inferences (or estimates) about a population based on sample data. Because we cannot know precisely what is happening
Read MoreCalculating a t-test in SPSS
Calculating a t-test in SPSS in order to compare differences between means and/or proportions What you’ll need variable-wise: For comparing mean differences between groups: a
Read MoreANOVA in SPSS
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is a statistical test used to assess where differences in means between three or more groups are statistically significantly different. Statistical significance refers to the probability that the relationships observed in our sample, comes from a null distribution. In other words, we are trying to see if the observed differences were likely to have come from a population where there were actually no differences.
Read MoreChi-Square in SPSS
Chi-Square in SPSS Calculating a chi-square statistic in SPSS is quite simple, as long as you have two categorical variables. The much harder part is
Read MoreThe Basics of STATA
There are three main types of files used in Stata: Data File: Filename.dta Syntax File: Filename.do Output file: Filename.log The data file is where all
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