CASS Short Course Programme 2012/13 announced

Full updated details of the new CASS Short Course Programme for 2012/13 are now available from the CASS website at www.southampton.ac.uk/cass

*** Please note that courses filled up very quickly and early booking is recommended ***

The 2012/13 Programme includes courses on:

• How to Analyse Survey Data: Methods, Software and Applications (by Prof Danny Pfeffermann, Prof Patrick Sturgis, Dr Moshe Feder and Dr Dave Holmes) • Questionnaire Design (by Dr Pamela Campanelli) • Survey Data Analysis I: Introducing Descriptive and Inferential Statistics (by Dr Olga Maslovskaya and Dr Amos Channon)• Survey Data Analysis II: Introduction to Linear Regression Modelling (by Dr Nikos Tzavidis) • Applied Multilevel Modelling (by Dr Ian Brunton-Smith and Dr Gabriele Durrant) • Regression Methods (by Dr James J Brown) • Essentials of Survey Design and Implementation (by Dr Pamela Campanelli) • Data Linkage: From Theory to Practice (by Dr Nathalie Shlomo) • Structural Equation Modelling for Cross-Sectional and Panel Data (by Prof Patrick Sturgis and Dr Katy Sindall) •Event History Analysis (by Dr Hill Kulu) (tbc) • Longitudinal Data Analysis (by Prof Peter Smith, Dr Ann Berrington and Dr Marcel Vieira)

Courses will be held in Southampton, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

For a course summary and details of dates and venues, please visit http://www.s3ri.soton.ac.uk/cass/programme.php

CASS (Courses in Applied Social Surveys) is a programme of short courses covering topics in survey design, data collection and data analysis methods. Courses are aimed at academic social scientists and applied researchers in government, market research and the independent and voluntary sectors.

CASS is part of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods.

Teaching is interactive and responsive to course participants' needs. All courses include practical sessions or computer workshops to enable participants to put the learned methods into practice.

For most courses fees are £30 per day for UK-registered students. £60 per day for staff from UK academic institutions (including research centres), ESRC funded researchers and UK registered charitable organisations. £220 per day for all other participants. However please check the individual course you are interested in for exact fees. The course fee includes course materials, lunches and morning and afternoon refreshments. Travel and accommodation are to be arranged and paid for by the participant.

If you have any further questions please contact us at cass@southampton.ac.uk or look at our website www.southampton.ac.uk/cass

Innovative approaches to methodological challenges facing ageing cohort studies

Day 1: Wednesday 25 July 2012
MANDEC, 3rd Floor, University Dental Hospital, Higher Cambridge Street, Manchester, M15 6FH
Booking form

Day 2: Thursday 26 July 2012
Room: TBC

Booking form

This conference brings together key themes explored in the previous NCRM workshops on the methodological challenges to ageing cohort studies (http://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk/ageingcohort/). The focus of this conference will be innovative solutions that have been developed by researchers to deal with problems associated with ageing cohort studies. In particular, some solutions to challenges related to attrition, missingness, comparability across cohorts and over time, and data collection will be highlighted over two days. The first day will feature presentations and where appropriate, a demonstration of syntax programming for statistical packages. The second day will feature practical sessions in a computer lab using statistical software packages.

Please note: It is not compulsory to attend both days.

Day 1 Presentations: 11am- 4pm
James Banks (IFS and University of Manchester)- Attrition and Health in Ageing Studies: Evidence from ELSA and HRS. This presents an investigation into observable characteristics associated with attrition in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), with a particular focus on whether attrition is systematically related to health outcomes and socioeconomic status.
Ian Plewis (University of Manchester)- Using auxiliary variables to adjust for longitudinal missingness. Different sorts of auxiliary variables – variables measured at previous waves, frame variables and paradata - can be used to improve the accuracy of response propensity models, and to enhance adjustments for missing longitudinal data. These variables can be used when constructing iterative probability weights, carrying out multiple imputations, and specifying models that jointly model a substantive process and the missingness mechanism. Data from the first two waves of the UK Millennium Cohort Study are used to illustrate the potential value of auxiliary variables.
Rebecca Hardy (NSHD and UCL)- Statistical issues in meta-analysing multiple ageing cohort studies. This presentation examines recent publications from the HALCYON study team that have overcome methodological challenges to meta-analysis of observational cohort studies. In particular, challenges on data comparability across cohorts and over time will be highlighted.
Natasha Wood (Natcen)- Overcoming problems associated with retrospective data collection in cohort studies. This presentation looks at the development of the lifegrid for retrospective data collection and its CAPI implementation in the ELSA life history interview.

Day 2 Computer based practical workshops: 10am- 4pm
Rebecca Landy (QMW) : A simulation of 1946 birth cohort data under three missing data mechanisms (MCAR, MAR and MNAR), using three missing data methods - complete case, multiple imputation and Heckman selection. This session takes the student through the STATA syntax used when applying these missing data methods.
Gopalakrishnan Netuveli and Morten Wahrendorf (ICLS and Imperial College): The lifegrid data structure for ELSA and the Survey for Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) will be described, highlighting similarities and differences. This will be followed by a practical demonstration of handling lifegrid data based on ELSA data using STATA.
The workshop is free for participants to attend but registration is essential. Workshop attendees may claim some travel expenses. Please email veronica.smith@manchester.ac.uk for further details.

A Strategy for Survey Methods Research in the UK

Three Directors of the late Survey Resources Network have published a strategy document, examining the present and future of survey methods research in this country. The document is available via the surveynet.ac.uk website or via the link below:

Peter Lynn, Bob Erens and Patrick Sturgis:
A Strategy for Survey Methods Research in the UK

New NCRM paper: How many qualitative interviews is enough?

Students conducting a piece of qualitative research frequently ask ‘how many interviews is enough?’ Early career researchers and established academics also consider this question when designing research projects.

In this National Centre for Research Methods, Methods Review paper Rosalind Edwards (NCRM, Univ. Southampton) and Sarah Elsie Baker (Middlesex Univ.) gather and review responses to the question of ‘how many’ from 14 renowned social scientists and 5 early career researchers. Download the paper.

Workshop on Respondent Driven Sampling

http://www.norface-migration.org/eventdetail.php?id=57

Date and Venue:  16 & 17 June, Institute of Education, London

The purpose of this conference is to bring together statisticians and survey methodologists developing Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) with researchers using the method to survey immigrants. RDS utilizes social networks to find, survey, and develop inference on "hidden populations" like sex workers, drug users, and migrant workers. The method was introduced in 1997 and has since become widely used, yet RDS is often incorrectly implemented and the most recent statistical developments can take years to come into practice. Bringing together researchers using RDS methodology with leading statisticians and survey methodologists will further the aims of all three, by informing theory with practice and practice with the latest developments in statistical and methodological theory. The conference will also inform future applications of the method on migrant populations.

An international group of invited speakers include: Douglas Heckathorn, Simon Frost, Krista Gile, Matthew Salganik, Richard White, Peter Muhlau, Lisa Johnston, Andrew Cleary, Tetiana Saliuk, Guri Tyldum and Renee Luthra.

Registration: The workshop is free to researchers interested in RDS methodology, but space is limited. If you would like to attend, please email Renee Luthra: rrluthra@essex.ac.uk

This seminar has been organised under the auspices of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) and the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC). Support for the conference is also provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) (award no. RES-518-28-001), and the Norface Migration Research Programme.

Extending survey measures to children: Experience from the British Crime Survey

10 May 2011, 5.00pm, at the Royal Statistical Society (Tea from 4.30pm)

The British Crime Survey is a sample survey of the population resident in households in England and Wales. It has been running for 30 years but until recently has been restricted to adults. Since January 2009 its coverage has been significantly extended to include children aged 10-15 years.

Development of survey measures – Katherine Grant, TNS-BMRB

Prior to extending the survey to children, TNS-BMRB carried out an extensive period of developing and testing. This included qualitative workshops with children to explore their experience and understanding of crime; cognitive testing and piloting of questions and an extended split-sample field trial. Lessons learned from this work will be shared and their implications discussed.

Estimating the levels of crime experienced by children – John Flatley

Applying existing legal definitions of offences to those incidents reported by children can result in minor incidents that are normal within the context of childhood behaviour and development being categorised as criminal. Conversely, too narrow a classification could omit incidents which while not being viewed as serious by some may inflict significant harm on victims. These issues are discussed together with options for presenting statistics which have been subject to a public consultation.

Attendance is free but pre-registration is recommended. You can register by email: meetings@rss.org.uk or by phone (020) 7638 8998. For a map and directions see www.rss.org.uk/findus . For further information contact John Flatley via john.flatley@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk .

Two-day course on questionnaire design and measurement

This is a two-day course on questionnaire design and measurement, taught by Professor Jon A. Krosnick (Stanford University), running 5th and 6th of May at the LSE. The course is organized by the LSE’s Methodology Institute, Ipsos-MORI and the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex.

Further details can be found at: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/methodologyInstitute/newsEvents/Krosnick.aspx

The two-day course is free for LSE students and staff, £100 for non-LSE students, £200 for the public sector (including non-LSE University staff) and £400 for the private-sector.

Applications can be made at: https://eshop.lse.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=71&deptid=212&catid=40

Surveys and questionnaires are a common way of gathering data in the social sciences. The structuring, wording and ordering of questions has traditionally been viewed as an art, not a science, best guided by intuition. But in recent years, it has become clear that this is an antiquated and even dangerous view that does not reflect the accumulation of knowledge throughout the social sciences about effective question-asking. Intuition often leads us astray in the questionnaire design field, as becomes clear when putting intuitions to the test via scientific evaluation. A large body of relevant scientific studies has now accumulated, and when taken together, the findings point to a series of formal rules for how best to design questions. Yet the vast majority of contemporary questionnaire design fails to follow these rules, because they are not yet widely understood. During the past 25 years, Jon Krosnick has been gathering up the huge body of evidence on optimal questionnaire design for this forthcoming book, The Handbook of Questionnaire Design. In this course, Dr. Krosnick will review the contents of the first half of the book.

The two-day course educates participants about the optimal techniques for questionnaire design, for guarding against measurement artifacts, and for analyzing data in order to overcome the biasing impact of such artifacts. The course will teach participants a new way of thinking about questionnaire design, rooted in psychology. By gaining insight into how respondents approach their tasks of interpreting questions, searching their memories for information, integrating that information into judgments, and expressing those judgments in words, workshop participants will begin to develop skills that will help them to mange design issues for which there are not yet formal rules. In addition to helping participants to design better questionnaires, the two-day course will also equip analysts of questionnaire data to look from a new perspective as they evaluate the meaning of their findings, knowing how measurement artifacts can lead them astray.

Essex University: PhD and Masters in survey methodology

The Department of Sociology at the University of Essex invites applications for fully-funded Masters and PhD studentships in quantitative sociology or survey methodology. Programmes are either for four years, including a one-year Masters, or three years, for applicants who already have research methods training at postgraduate level.

Students can choose from several Masters degrees, leading on to a PhD based in the Department of Sociology (Quantitative Sociology) or ISER (Survey Methodology). Masters degrees are available as standalone one-year degrees, but without ESRC funding.

ISER: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees
Sociology: http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/prospective/Research_Degrees/
Masters: http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/prospective/PG_Programmes/

For more information about our ESRC studentships, eligibility and available funding, please see: www.essex.ac.uk/dtc.

A formal offer of a postgraduate place at Essex if necessary before you can be considered. You can apply online for postgraduate study at Essex at: www.essex.ac.uk/pgapply and then apply for these studentships.

You should submit your application for postgraduate study by 28 April 2011 at the very latest, to ensure you meet our subsequent ESRC funding application deadline of 13 May 2011.

For more details about the programmes, please contact Dr Nick Allum (nallum@essex.ac.uk) or for application procedures, Michele Hall, Graduate Administrator (socpgadm@essex.ac.uk).