Research Planning

Introduction to Item Response Theory

October 24, 2023
by Mingfeng Xue. Measurements (e.g., tests, surveys, questionnaires) are inevitably involved with various sources of errors. Among many psychometric theories, item response theory stands out for its capability of detailed analyses at the item level and its potential to reduce some of the measurement errors. This post first discussed the limitations of conventional summation and average, which give rise to the IRT models, and then introduced a basic form of the Rasch model, including expressions of the model, the assumptions underlying it, some of its advantages, and software packages. Some codes are also provided.

Americanist Linguistics: on Ethics and Intent

October 17, 2023
by Anna Björklund. In this post, Anna Björklund investigates the origin of the linguistic study of indigenous American languages, its inextricable ties to settler-colonialism, and how linguistics can move forward as a field.

FSRDC 2023 Annual Meeting and Research Conference

October 2, 2023
by Renee Starowicz. Renee Starowicz, Co-Executive Director of the Berkeley Federal Statistical Research Data Center, provides an overview of the takeaways from the 2023 Annual Federal Statistical Research Data Center Business Meeting and Annual Conference. She provides a brief overview of the Berkeley FSRDC. Then, she describes the priorities for collaboration across national directors to improve outreach to diverse researchers and transparency. Additionally, she points out the other key topics of conversation at this year’s meeting.

Introduction to Field Experiments and Randomized Controlled Trials

July 24, 2023
by Leena Bhai. This blog post provides an introduction to field experimentation and its significance in understanding cause and effect. It explains how randomized experiments represent an unbiased method for determining what works. It delves into essential features of experiments such as intervention, excludability, and non-interference. It then works through a fictional example of a randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of an experimental drug Covi-Mapp.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

October 9, 2023, 9:00am
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

February 7, 2023, 10:00am
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

November 7, 2022, 12:00pm
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Getting Started with Surveys

October 18, 2022
Getting Started With Surveys

Surveys can be an extremely useful tool for gathering information from individuals and groups. They are used across disciplines and industries to help researchers learn more about populations and gain actionable insights. I’ve done extensive survey research in nonprofit and industry settings, using these data to improve programs, make changes to technology, design communications plans, make content acquisition decisions, and much more. In this blog post, I’ll focus on one of the most important parts of survey research — planning....

Institutional Review Boards (IRB) Fundamentals

March 17, 2022, 3:00pm
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Can Virtual Communities be Archived?

February 23, 2021

When future historians try to piece together social life in the twenty-first century, they won’t be combing through faded newspaper clippings or handwritten letters. They’ll be clicking through digital archives that have stored remnants of our real and virtual lives: email collections, tweets, Facebook messages, maybe even Google Calendar entries.

For the time being, preservation of these records is the burden of the user. If one chooses, they can download their Facebook archive or back-up their emails and photos, and maybe choose to share them with a scholar in the...