Data analysis support – opportunities with AQMeN Applied Quantitative Methods Network Alistair Geddes (Dundee University)

A collaborative network to raise quantitative expertise and capacity in social sciences within Scotland

AQMeN staff(University of Edinburgh)

Susan McVie Director

Helen Brown Senior Statistician

Angie DicksonAdmin and Communications Officer

Heather Alexander Training and KnowledgeExchange Officer

Funded Partners

Prof Lindsay PatersonDr Cristina IannelliDr Andy Thompson

Prof Gwilym Pryce

Prof Vernon Gayle

Dr Anthony Glendinning

Dr Alistair Geddes

Prof Robert Raeside

Dr Mark ShephardDr Stephen Tagg

Other collaborators

• Other Scottish Universities:

• Scottish Government

• Local authorities

• Voluntary sector

• Private sector

• 1000+ members and growing

Objectives

• Boost capacity in quantitative methods in social sciences in Scotland

• Facilitate communication and knowledge exchange

• Encourage collaboration between:– disciplines– institutions– academics and non-academics

• Further exploit existing Scottish datasets

AQMeN activities

• Programme of training and events

• Interactive and informative website

• Quarterly newsletter

• Learning resources

• Statistical advisory service

• Small grants scheme

• Encourage communication and networking between members

Programme of events

• Developed in response to feedback from survey and consultation

• Training courses

– Intermediate to advanced techniques in social science

– Free to staff and students of Scottish Universities, charge for non-academics

• Knowledge exchange events (lectures/seminars)

– Free for all to attend

Recent events

• PhD events– 16th May PhD Conference

– 17-19th May Presenting Research to Different Types of Audience

• Core Training– July Grouping Methods

(Clustering and Latent Class Analysis)

– September Structural Equation Modelling

– December Geographically Weighted Regression

Local events

• Edinburgh– 3rd May: Institutional legitimacy and offending behaviour: Can

police behaviour affect the contexts within which people think about crime?

– 6th June: Using the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2008/09

• Napier– 6th April: Description and analysis of typical data from scale

questions in questionnaires– 12th April: Obtaining regression based models from

questionnaire data

Local events

• Dundee– March 2010: Changing face of Scotland

• BioSS– 4th May: Graphical Methods for Multivariate Data

Statistical advisory service

• For AQMeN members

• Provided by AQMeN team or network members with relevant expertise

• Advice given recorded for future use

Encouraging collaboration

• Between disciplines and organisations

• Assistance with:– identifying opportunities for collaborative research– bringing relevant parties together

• Small grants:– collaborative research using AQMeN training– 3 grants of £3000 per year– 4th call just opened - deadline 29th July 2011

Recent collaborative grants

• Development of new tool for the study of risk in farm business decisionScottish Agricultural College & University of Edinburgh

• Development of online annotated demonstration analyses of multivariate methods for longitudinal dataCentre for Families & Relationships & Scottish Centre for Social Research

• Development of a method for mapping potential volunteering participation at the local level,linking the Scottish Household Survey to local area statisticsUniversity of Stirling and Volunteer Development Scotland

Exploiting existing Scottish datasets

• Scotland has a lot of under-used data

– Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) – Scottish Crime Survey – Scottish Social Attitudes Survey – Scottish Health Survey – Scottish Household Survey – Scottish components of large UK datasets

• Potential for more in-depth quantitative analysis

www.aqmen.ac.uk

Skills Needed to Use Statistical Methods

• Data management

• Understanding of statistical techniques

• Software

• Recognise when to:

– ask advice from a statistician

– work collaboratively using a statistician to carry out analyses

AQMeN & You

Join via AQMeN website – free!

http://aqmen.ac.uk/

Analyst Training Event

• £3k Edinburgh University Knowledge Exchange grant

• AQMen Edinburgh-Dundee + Fife analysts

• 2 days training (June)

• Tailored to needs / data

Analyst Training Event

Day 1 1. Theory: Understanding statistical techniques2. Practical: Using statistical techniques3. Theory: Prediction and forecasting4. Practical: Prediction and forecasting5. Theory: Evaluating police initiatives6. Practical: Evaluating police initiatives

Analyst Training Event

Day 2 1. Theory: Crime hotspots2. Practical: Techniques for hotspot mapping3. Theory: Hotspots for evaluating and predicting4. Practical: Hotspots and policing strategies

Please get in touch

[email protected]

[email protected]