This text explores and celebrates imaginative and creative approaches to youth research, showcasing a wide range of innovative methods including music elicitation, mental mapping, blog analysis and mobile methods.

Researchers are expected to produce original findings, yet nobody explains how original contributions are conceived in economics. Recently there have been calls for more creativity in economic research, yet there is no literature that explores creative research apart from collections of biographical essays. This book aims to address that gap, exploring the process of conceiving and generating ideas for interesting and original research contributions in economics (and potentially other social sciences too). Creative Research in Economics serves both a practical and theoretical purpose. Theoretically it presents a unique way of thinking about the nature of problems and questions in economics and the role of social science researchers in society. As such it offers an interesting way to think about the philosophy of science and methodology in economics, and how new ideas emerge in the discipline. Practically it develops techniques for finding interesting and original research contributions (as opposed to conventional data-gathering research). Whether you are a graduate student looking for that first interesting question, a novice researcher in search of fresh avenues for research after your PhD, or a seasoned academic looking to teach the philosophy and methodology of economics in more interesting ways, you will find this book of great use.

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and other higher-degree research students to the process of scientific research in the fields of Information Systems as well as fields of Information Technology, Business Process Management and other related disciplines within the social sciences. It guides research students in their process of learning the life of a researcher. In doing so, it provides an understanding of the essential elements, concepts and challenges of the journey into research studies. It also provides a gateway for the student to inquire deeper about each element covered . Comprehensive and broad but also succinct and compact, the book is focusing on the key principles and challenges for a novice doctoral student.

Praise for the Second Edition

"Statistics for Research has other fine qualities besides superior organization. The examples and the statistical methods are laid out with unusual clarity by the simple device of using special formats for each. The book was written with great care and is extremely user-friendly."--The UMAP Journal

Although the goals and procedures of statistical research have changed little since the Second Edition of Statistics for Research was published, the almost universal availability of personal computers and statistical computing application packages have made it possible for today's statisticians to do more in less time than ever before.

The Third Edition of this bestselling text reflects how the changes in the computing environment have transformed the way statistical analyses are performed today. Based on extensive input from university statistics departments throughout the country, the authors have made several important and timely revisions, including: Additional material on probability appears early in the text New sections on odds ratios, ratio and difference estimations, repeated measure analysis, and logistic regression New examples and exercises, many from the field of the health sciences Printouts of computer analyses on all complex procedures An accompanying Web site illustrating how to use SAS(R) and JMP(R) for all procedures

The text features the most commonly used statistical techniques for the analysis of research data. As in the earlier editions, emphasis is placed on how to select the proper statistical procedure and how to interpret results. Whenever possible, to avoid using the computer as a "black box" that performs a mysteriousprocess on the data, actual computational procedures are also given.

A must for scientists who analyze data, professionals and researchers who need a self-teaching text, and graduate students in statistical methods, Statistics for Research, Third Edition brings the methodology up to date in a very practical and accessible way.

The archaeological study of the Ancient World has become increasingly popular in recent years. A Research Guide to the Ancient World: Print and Electronic Sources, is a partially annotated bibliography. The study of the ancient world is usually, although no exclusively, considered a branch of the humanities, including archaeology, art history, languages, literature, philosophy, and related cultural disciplines which consider the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean world, and adjacent Egypt and southwestern Asia. Chronologically the ancient world would extend from the beginning of the Bronze Age of ancient Greece (ca. 1000 BCE) to the fall of the Western Roman Empire (ca. 500 CE). This book will close the traditional subject gap between the humanities (Classical World; Egyptology) and the social sciences (anthropological archaeology; Near East) in the study of the Ancient World. This book is uniquely the only bibliographic resource available for such holistic coverage. The volume consists of 17 chapters and seven appendices. Arrangement is according to the traditional types of library research materials (bibliographies, dictionaries, atlases, etc.) and the appendices are most subject specific, including graduate programs in the Ancient World, significant archaeologyical sites reports, numismatics, and paleography and writing systems.Access to the contents of the volume is facilitated by extensive author and subject indexes.

Flood Problem and Management in South Asia focuses on both the hazard and the vulnerability aspects of floods. This book addresses floods in South Asia from a multidisciplinary approach. The characteristics and nature of the flood problem and its management aspects are examined. It is suggested that flood control and management focused on structural solutions using embankments and reservoirs are insufficient. Effective solutions must go beyond structural measures and require major restructuring of both legal systems and institutions responsible for management. For those people living in the vast flood plains of South Asia to be able to overcome social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities, an adaptive approach to management of flood risks that identifies specific strategies is needed.

Around the world a multitude of surveys are conducted every day, on a variety of subjects, and consequently surveys have become an accepted part of modern life. However, in recent years survey estimates have been increasingly affected by rising trends in nonresponse, with loss of accuracy as an undesirable result. Whilst it is possible to reduce nonresponse to some degree, it cannot be completely eliminated. Estimation techniques that account systematically for nonresponse and at the same time succeed in delivering acceptable accuracy are much needed.

"Estimation in Surveys with Nonresponse" provides an overview of these techniques, presenting the view of nonresponse as a normal (albeit undesirable) feature of a sample survey, one whose potentially harmful effects are to be minimised. Builds in the nonresponse feature of survey data collection as an integral part of the theory, both for point estimation and for variance estimation. Promotes weighting through calibration as a new and powerful technique for surveys with nonresponse. Highlights the analysis of nonresponse bias in estimates and methods to minimize this bias. Includes computational tools to help identify the best variables for calibration. Discusses the use of imputation as a complement to weighting by calibration. Contains guidelines for dealing with frame imperfections and coverage errors. Features worked examples throughout the text, using real data.

The accessible style of "Estimation in Surveys with Nonresponse" will make this an invaluable tool for survey methodologists in national statistics agencies and private survey agencies. Researchers, teachers, and students of statistics, social sciences and economicswill benefit from the clear presentation and numerous examples.

"The treatment and Handling of Wastes" provides an account of the environmental problems posed by the different types of waste material, the current state of technology for dealing with them, and what science and technology promises for the future. The book opens by providing a background to the general ecological, economic and legislative principles that apply to waste management and disposal. The second part of the book takes a view of what may be possible in future waste disposal programmes. The contributors are all leading scientists or industrialists who have to achieve safe economic and practical ways of handling the wastes produced by human activity. The book should provide valuable reading for all scientists, managers and environmentalists concered with finding practical ways forward in waste management.

Research in religious studies has traditionally focused on adult subjects since working with children presents significantly more challenges to the researcher, such as getting the research protocol passed by the Internal Review Board, obtaining permission from parents and schools, and figuring out how to make sense of young worldviews. The Study of Children in Religions provides scholars with a comprehensive source to assist them in addressing many of the issues that often stop researchers from pursuing projects involving children. This handbook offers a broad range of methodological and conceptual models for scholars interested in conducting work with children. It not only illuminates some of the legal and ethical issues involved in working with youth and provides guidance in getting IRB approval, but also presents specific case studies from scholars who have engaged in child-centered research and here offer the fruits of their experience. Cases include those that use interviews and drawings to work with children in contemporary settings, as well as more historically focused endeavors to use material culture-such as Sunday school projects or religious board games-to study children's religious lives in past eras. The Study of Children in Religions offers concrete help to those who wish to conduct research on children and religion but are unsure of how to get started or how to frame their research.

Under the auspices of the Tsunami Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the International Coordination Group of the International Oceanographic Commission, the IUGGIIOC International Tsunami Symposium, TSUNAMI '93 (Sixteenth International Tsunami Symposium) was held in Wakayama, Olle of the most historical areas in the prevention of tsunami disasters in Japan, from 23 to 27 August, 1993 by the Organizing Committee of the Japan Society of Ovil Engineers, in commemoration of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. More than one hundred and fifty scientists, engineers and specialists specializing in tsunami research and mitigation of the disasters met from thirteen countries to exchange current information on technica1 advances and to discuss progress in the science. Over hundred and ten abstracts were submitted, most of which were excellent. It was specially agreed in this symposium that in the aftemoon of the third day a usual session for operational tsunami warning systems and plans for improvement is hdd, but three days for presentation and publication restrictions only permit the presentation of less than 78 papers.

While executives are keen to harness organizational knowledge and improve business performance, the topic of how academics can produce rigorous and relevant theory in working relationships with practitioners is a much contested topic. Many aspects of this knowledge co-creation can create tensions, and the ways in which research is conducted and published can affect practitioner acceptance, as well as its consequent uptake and use in different contexts. Expertly compiled by Jean Bartunek and Jane McKenzie, with contributions from global thinkers in the field, this book offers a concise and up-to-date review of the essential analysis and action underlying scholarly engagement with the world of business. It discusses the sorts of capabilities academics need to collaborate effectively with practitioners and illustrates good practice through international case studies drawn from acknowledged centres of excellence. These show how to negotiate different constituencies with different priorities, values, and practices to work together to produce research of rigor and relevance. It will be a key reference and resource for all researchers who are engaged with practitioners, and an invaluable tool for training academics to develop research with impact.

This project started with a focus on measurement, as governments, casino owners, and others are often most interested in the science of gambling. The handbook seeks to serve as a comprehensive reference tool for scholars and professionals who want information about developing viable research strategies and methods. In particular, people who want to learn about gathering data, measuring it, and interpreting their findings in light of ongoing multidisciplinary work. The key features include: first book to focus on the research and measurement issues related to the emergent field of gambling studies; offers a common starting point for researchers with diverse backgrounds by explaining the generally accepted knowledge in the area, research trends, and information gaps; and international contributors provide commentary on the methodologies and measurement tools in use (what's effective, what needs improvement, and future prospects).

Contemporary political and public discourse has come alive with the issues and conflicts surrounding questions of national identity. Despite the widespread sociological attention it has drawn as a result, most studies of national identity have been conducted at considerable analytical distance from the lived reality of national identity talk. This collection brings together the work of contemporary researchers, situating the talk and interaction in which national identities are actually expressed and used. The book presents detailed investigations of how persons actually use national identity in their talk, the interactional uses to which such expressions are put, and the interactional consequences of such identity talk. The studies are based on transcribed tape recordings of naturally occurring talk across a variety of different countries and settings, illuminating not only situated national identity talk as a phenomenon in its own right, but also providing empirically grounded research for traditional sociological theorising about issues of integration, devolution and exclusion.

This book is a collection of papers presented at the international symposium on forest sector analysis held in Miyazaki, Japan, in 1998. It is structured with three themes: understanding global forest sector issues, discussing the contribution of modeling efforts to forest sector analysis, and discussing the role of Japanese forest policy in a global sense. The most important features are the case studies using various types of forest sector models. From a modeling perspective, changes in modeling efforts include more detail of spatial and multiple market levels, intergenerational welfare concerns, non-market valuation issues, and explicit treatment of the uncertainty inherent in both the policy process and in the biophysical systems. The reader of this book will benefit not only from presentation of forest utilization issues in different nations, but also from the interrelatedness of the theory and application of forest sector modeling.

This book evolved from a collaborative research project between the University of Manitoba, Canada and Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, which commenced in 1984 to study the problems of river channel migration, rural population displacement and land relocation in Bangladesh. The study was sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), based in Ottawa, Canada. It was through this project that I started my journey into disaster research more than thirteen years ago with basically an applied problem of massive magnitude in Bangladesh. I spent two- and-a half-years, in two stages, in Bangladesh's riparian villages to collect the empirical data for this study. Then the growing disaster discourse throughout the 1980s, especially its conceptual and theoretical areas, drew me in further, gluing my interest to these issues. In the 1990s, during my research and teaching at Brandon University, Canada, I realized that, despite the large body of literature on natural disasters, there was no work that synthesized the approaches to nature-triggered disasters in a comprehensive form, with sufficient empirical substantiation. In addition, despite the great deal of attention given to disasters in Bangladesh, I found no detailed reference book on the topic. Natural hazards and disasters, in my view, should be studied under a holistic framework encompassing the natural environment, society and individuals. Overreaction to the limitations of technocratic-scientific approaches-the control and prevention of physical events through specialized knowledge and skills-has resulted in a call for "taking the naturalness out of natural disasters.

Digital Humanities is rapidly evolving as a significant approach to/method of teaching, learning and research across the humanities. This is a first-stop book for people interested in getting to grips with digital humanities whether as a student or a professor. The book offers a practical guide to the area as well as offering reflection on the main objectives and processes, including: Accessible introductions of the basics of Digital Humanities through to more complex ideas A wide range of topics from feminist Digital Humanities, digital journal publishing, gaming, text encoding, project management and pedagogy Contextualised case studies Resources for starting Digital Humanities such as links, training materials and exercises Doing Digital Humanities looks at the practicalities of how digital research and creation can enhance both learning and research and offers an approachable way into this complex, yet essential topic.

This book is a new chapter in a continuing international collaboration on transportation survey methods. It identifies new challenges to the world community of transport survey specialists as well as the larger constituency of practitioners, planners, and decision-makers that it serves and provides potential solutions and recommendations for addressing them. The book is structured around an introduction and five overlapping themes of major contemporary importance to the development of data collection on both passenger travel and freight movements which are: Sustainability and User Adaptation; Global Social Issues; Freight and Transit Planning; Technology applications; and, Emerging/Persistent Survey Issues, including Data Harmonization".

This book provides thorough guidance on various forms of data generation and analysis, presenting a model for the research process in which detailed data analysis and generalization through the development of concepts are central. Based on an inductive principle, which begins with raw data and moves towards concepts or theories through incremental deductive feedback loops, the 'stepwise-deductive induction' approach advanced by the author focuses on the analysis phase in research. Concentrating on creativity, structuring of analytical work, and collaborative development of generic knowledge, it seeks to enable researchers to extend their insight of a subject area without having personally to study all the data generated throughout a project. A constructive alternative to Grounded Theory, the approach advanced here is centred on qualitative research that aims at developing concepts, models, or theories on basis of a gradual paradigm to reduce complexity. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences with interests in methods and the analysis of qualitative data of various kinds.

Over the past 20 years the costs of natural disasters have escalated significantly. The lives of over 800 million people have been disrupted and the number of catastrophes has nearly quadrupled. At present, the increasing global threat of natural disasters, in spite of our increased knowledge, is ominous. With the growth in world population, the increasing of resources in newly developing areas, and the increasing cost and sophistication of engineering structures and technical installations, there is an urgent need to seek to understand the potential threats posed by natural hazards and to ascertain the best ways of mitigating their damaging effects. To meet this urgent threat, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December 22, 1989 passed a Resolution which declared the 1990s to be the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). As a contribution to the decade, the International Symposium Hazards--91 was held in Perugia, Italy, during 4--9 August 1991. The conference was attended by specialists from 34 countries, and a total of 110 papers were presented at 20 sessions, covering a very broad range of topics which proved to be of significant value for future research. The sixteen articles included in this book provide a unique overview of the state-of-the-science in geophysical hazards including climatic, atmospheric, hydrological and geological hazards. Furthermore, the results of a panel on the IDNDR and the recommendations adopted during the meeting are presented at the end of this volume. Recent Studies in Geophysical Hazards is thus an excellent reference source for scientists, engineers, and policy makers.

Writing reports is a vital skill in many professions and roles across every sector. Despite this, the majority of reports generated in organizations tend to be difficult to read, dull and do not make the impact they should - either for the content or for the author. In this book, you will learn how to write in a convincing way for a variety of different audiences. Fundamentals covered include structure, graphic presentation, plagiarism and oral presentation. The authors include a useful section on writing under pressure (by writing as a team, for example) as well as material on pitfalls to avoid when writing in English as a second language. This simple, effective book is a great tool for readers across the globe who wish to improve their report-writing skills.

What is a relevant research problem? How can I improve concepts and measurements? Which and how many variables and cases should I select? How do I evaluate rival explanations and which theoretical conclusions can I draw? This book offers practical guidelines on these core issues of design for qualitative and quantitative research in political science. It puts special emphasis on the trade-offs involved in design decisions and on illustrations from actual research.

The Fourteenth International Tsunami Symposium held from 31 July to 3 August 1989 in Novosibirsk, U.S.S.R., was sponsored by the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. Sixty-five scientists from 13 countries met to exchange information on recent advances in tsunami research. The Symposium was a great success due to the enthusiasm of the participants, the quality of research presented, and the great organization provided by the Soviet hosts. Teams of dedicated workers, under the fine leadership of Academician A. S. Alexseev and Dr V. K. Gusiakov, blended social and scientific activities in a memorable fashion. The 62 presentations of the Symposium were divided into six areas of research: generation (7), propagation (12), coastal effects (10), observations (11), seismics and tectonics (10), and hazard mitigation (12). A summary of the research presented appears as the first article in this special issue. Following the Symposium, a team of session chairmen nominated 20 of these oral presentations to be published in a special issue devoted to the International Tsunami Symposium.

Causes of major disasters are many and diverse, and the risks associated with them endanger human lives, property, the environment, the economy, and even the country's political and social well-being. It is clear that, with rapid population growth, environmental degradation, climate change, poorly regulated industries, and continued economic uncertainty, the chances are that communities may become more vulnerable to disasters. The dramatic losses in recent years from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides, wildland fires, droughts and floods, cyclones and storm surges attest to the fact that we are still a long way from applying even the knowledge we have today to make communities safe. Tackling this problem requires a sound evaluation of disaster mitigation policies and tools. As a contribution to the International Decade for Natural Disasters Reduction (IDNDR), the fifth international symposium HAZARDS-93 was held in Qingdao, P.R. China on 29 August - 3 September, 1993. China is a country frequently hit by almost all kinds of disasters. Its history is one of combating natural disasters and working towards their reduction. More than 250 scientists, engineers and government officials from 20 countries met for the purpose of engaging in a free exchange of knowledge, experience and ideas regarding the scientific and socio-economic aspects of mitigating losses from natural and man- made disasters. A total of 180 papers were presented at 28 sessions covering a very broad range of topics related to disaster management. The twenty-one articles included in this book deal with the scientific and management issues of land-based and marine hazards which cause the most severe economic losses, deaths and environmental degradation in many parts of the world. The book also includes specific recommendations addressed to the IDNDR Secretariat, national governments and scientific experts to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of disaster management. Thus, Land-Based and Marine Hazards: Scientific and Management Issues forms an excellent reference for scientists, engineers, policy-makers and the insurance industry.