The use of interactive electronic-books in the teaching and application of modern quantitative methods in the social sciences

When social science researchers wish to carry out research into a specific problem, if they choose a quantitative approach they will collect either new data or existing data and perform statistical analysis on this data. The modern age and the impact of faster computers with larger storage capacities has resulted in far larger data sources which can be analysed. It has become increasingly important therefore for social science researchers to be trained in quantitative methods and the use of statistical computer software to analyse datasets and answer research questions. Modern statistical techniques have also become more computational and so there is a desire for software tools that simplify the research process whilst still allowing social scientists access to the most appropriate statistical methods.

In this proposal we build on work in a current grant in which we have prototyped an interactive electronic book (or eBook) system for learning about statistical techniques and performing statistical analysis. An eBook can be thought of as combining the features of a book with those of a statistical package as it contains a mixture of textual information, graphs and tables but also input boxes which when completed write sections of the book that are conditional on the inputs supplied.

We intend to investigate the appropriateness of the new technology and how it may be adapted to be used for various tasks that are commonly performed by social scientists. We will focus on three specific tasks:
1. Assisting the researcher while they work through the various stages of performing a statistical analysis for datasets with particular features.
2. Helping to make the researchers research reproducible, so that other researchers could repeat it, by allowing the researcher to link full details of the statistical analysis that they have performed within the publication that results from their work and allowing others to interact with the analysis resulting in an enhanced journal article.
3. Training social science researchers in new quantitative research methods and new statistical software through the use of interactive ebooks.

Who will benefit from this research?

We expect in the longer term for the whole quantitative (social) science community to benefit directly or indirectly through the research proposed but we foresee this happening in stages as new groups of researchers become familiar with the tools that we produce. We will therefore focus on three groups to illustrate how our work will impact on their lives.

Group 1: Our team and our initial 'experts' working with us on work packages 1 and 2
Group 2: The community of users of our statistical software tools and training materials (currently over 10,000 strong and growing)
Group 3: Any researcher who accesses the (quantitative) scientific literature whether it be journal articles or textbooks and training materials

How will they benefit from the research?

Group 1: This first group will benefit directly during the lifetime of the project by being the first to use the new technology and develop interactive eBooks to showcase their research in a completely new way. They will learn how to use the system and have the unique opportunity to have input into the design of a system that we hope will change the way that researchers perform research. They will act as standard bearers taking the tools to their various disciplines and converting others to the eBook approach.
Group 2: The second group have already benefitted from our earlier research and will have produced many of the over 3,000 works that cite our existing software tools (MLwiN). They will therefore be used to using our tools for performing statistical analysis and will in time be converted to taking up our new system and the transparency that it offers. They will then use it to create the quantitative social science literature of tomorrow and create enhanced journal articles and training materials that use our interactive eBooks. They will be able to benefit from each others efforts by using our repository to access research that is tailored to their research questions and disciplines.
Group 3: The third group may not benefit immediately from our research but, as time passes and our user community produces more literature in the form of interactive eBooks, we will expect more and more researchers to have exposure to eBooks, whether through reading enhanced journal articles or training materials. The fact that our Stat-JR software, that sits under the eBook system, does not simply support our own MLwiN and eSTAT software but interoperates with all the main statistical software packages will open up our research to new groups who are wedded to other packages. As all our software tools are free to UK academics, financial cost will not be a factor in this market.