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Wednesday, September 20
Statistically speaking....
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 20 Sep 2006 01:11 PM MDT
Any discipline always has subsets of argument, typically about definitions, methodologies, process or significance. Statistics, of course, is no different. Below is an interesting article from the Washington Monthly about what constitutes statistical significance. The article is OK, but the commentary below it even better. See http://www.blogware.com/admin/index.cgi/cmd=post_article
LIES, DAMN LIES, AND....Via Kieran Healy, here's something way off the beaten path: a new paper by Alan Gerber and Neil Malhotra titled "Can political science literatures be believed? A study of publication bias in the APSR and the AJPS."
It is, at first glance, just what it says it is: a study of publication
bias, the tendency of academic journals to publish studies that find
positive results but not to publish studies that fail to find results.
The reason this is a problem is that it makes positive results look
more positive than they really are. If two researchers do a study, and
one finds a significant result (say, tall people earn more money than
short people) while the other finds nothing, seeing both studies will
make you skeptical of the first paper's result. But if the only paper
you see is the first one, you'll probably think there's something to it.
The chart on the right shows G&M's basic result. In statistics
jargon, a significant result is anything with a "z-score" higher than
1.96, and if journals accepted articles based solely on the quality of
the work, with no regard to z-scores, you'd expect the z-score of
studies to resemble a bell curve. But that's not what Gerber and
Malhotra found. Abovebelow
a z-score of 1.96 there are far fewer studies than you'd expect.
Apparently, studies that fail to show significant results have a hard
time getting published.
Major Crime Mapping Conference (2007) Call for Papers
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 20 Sep 2006 12:49 PM MDT
Eight or nine years back we attended one of the first Crime Mapping conferences sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and found it to be one of the most creative and practical events of this type. (We also have very high regard for the ESRI Users Conference and the Special Libraries Assoc. meetings.) So we want to be sure to let all analytic journos know about next year's Crime Mapping confab, scheduled for March 28 to 31, 2007 in Pittsburg, Penn. Here's part of the official call for papers:
The Mapping & Analysis for Public Safety Program announces it's Call
for Papers for the Ninth Crime Mapping Research Conference in Pittsburgh,
PA at the Omni William Penn Hotel, March 28 to 31, 2007. The deadline
for submission is Friday, September 29th....
The theme of this conference will be Spatial Approaches to
Understanding Crime & Demographics. The use of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) and spatial data analysis techniques have become prominent tools for
analyzing criminal behavior and the impacts of the criminal justice
system on society. Classical and spatial statistics have been merged to
form more comprehensive approaches in understanding social problems
from research and practical standpoints. These methods allow for the
measurement of proximity effects on places by neighboring areas that lead
to a multi-dimensional and less static understanding of factors that
contribute to or repel crime across space.
The 9th Crime Mapping Research Conference will be about demonstrating
the use and development of methodologies for practitioners and
researchers. The MAPS Program is anticipating the selection of key accepted
presentations for further development of an electronic monograph on GIS,
Spatial Data Analysis and the Study of Crime in the following year. Its
purpose will be to demonstrate the fusing of classical and spatial
analysis techniques to enhance policy decisions. Methods should not be
limited to the use of classical and spatial statistics but also
demonstrate the unique capabilities of GIS in preparing, categorizing and
visualization data for analysis....
Knowledge Management in the Newsroom
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 20 Sep 2006 12:48 PM MDT
If
you want to generate a glazed look of incomprehension in a audience of
journalists, just ask, "How many of you work for an organization that
has someone assigned to coordinate knowledge management throughout the
company or at least for the newsroom?"
We're not talking
about someone who acquires and coordinates databases, a task typically
assigned to news researchers, but rather someone who studies what
digital (or potentially digital ) data resources exist within the
entire company and how might those be leveraged to generate new or
better insights, stories and, possibly, revenue streams.
The
first journalism-specific book on the topic came of Stephen Quinn, a
professor at Deakin University in Australia. Quinn's book, "Knowledge Management in the Digital Newsroom,"
appeared in 2002 and draws examples from many U.S., European and Australian publications.
Now comes a similar work by a team led by Prof. Guy Berger that studied African newspapers of varying size and sophistication.
Author/s: Weza et al.
Date Published: 31/08/2006
File:
download (1554.115 KB)
Description:
This book tracks the state-of-play in a selection of independent
African newspapers, both big and small. It also points the way forward,
with explanations of "convergence", "content management", and
"enterprise management". In short, it shows what theories and systems
of Knowledge Management can offer the African media.
For other titles, see: http://www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za/publications.cfm
We will be
posting a review in coming days, but until then, go to the link above
and download a copy for yourself. The download price is right -- free
-- and doing so will save the mailing costs from Grahamstown, South
Africa.
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