Week 3 - Research Design

Having a good research design will ensure that you are not “comparing apples to oranges”. We discuss the sample population, the concept of randomization, and classic study designs.

Figure 1: Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster

Learning Objectives

This lecture consists of two parts, each of which have specific learning objectives.

Part 1

1. Learners are able to identify and select the most appropriate research design for the given research question
2. Learners are able to articulate the relative pros and cons of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs
3. Learners are able to identify their target population and how it will be reached

Part 2

These learning objectives are related to the assignment for this week.

1. Learners are able to import references to a Zotero group library
2. Learners can use an exported library from Zotero in Better BibTex Format to generate an automated reference list in an R Markdown file
3. Learners can edit a file in the Citation File Format (.cff) to add their name to the author list

Slides

title	lecturer	part	slides
Research Design	E. Tilley	Part 1	Access slides on Moodle
Reference Management and Open Science	L. Schöbitz	Part 2	Access slides in browser
Reference Management and Open Science	L. Schöbitz	Part 2	Access slides as PDF

Group work

• Groups will decide on a research design, a sample population, and revise the research questions if necessary. Each group will present their new design next week.

Papers

• Chapter 1: Bickman, L., Rog, D. J., & Hedrick, T. E. (2009). Applied research design: A practical approach. Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. Sage: London.

Homework

id	title_link	type	category	effort_estimate_min	submission_format	due_date
1	Week 3 - Magic of Zotero	assignment	required	45	GitHub	2022-03-15
2	What is a citation.cff file?	reading	required	5	no submission
3	Why Zotero?	reading	optional	15	no submission
4	Karl Broman - License your software	reading	required	15	no submission
5	The Turing Way - Guide for Reproducible Research - Overview - Definitions	reading	required	15	no submission
6	The Turing Way - Guide for Reproducible Research - Open Research - Open Data	reading	optional	30	no submission
7	The Turing Way - Guide for Reproducible Research - Open Research - Open Source Software	reading	optional	30	no submission