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

当社会科学研究人员希望对特定问题进行研究时，如果他们选择定量方法，他们将收集新数据或现有数据，并对这些数据进行统计分析。现代和更快的计算机与更大的存储容量的影响，导致了更大的数据源，可以分析。因此，对社会科学研究人员进行定量方法和使用统计计算机软件分析数据集和回答研究问题的培训变得越来越重要。现代统计技术也变得更加计算，因此有一个软件工具，简化了研究过程，同时仍然允许社会科学家访问最合适的统计方法的愿望。在这个建议中，我们建立在工作中，我们已经原型化的互动电子书（或电子书）系统，学习统计技术和执行统计分析。一本电子书可以被认为是一本书的功能与统计软件包的功能相结合，因为它包含了文本信息的混合，我们打算调查新技术的适当性，以及它如何适用于社交媒体通常执行的各种任务。科学家我们将重点抓好三项具体工作：1.协助研究人员完成对具有特定特征的数据集进行统计分析的各个阶段。2.帮助使研究人员的研究可重复，使其他研究人员可以重复它，通过允许研究人员链接的统计分析的全部细节，他们已经在出版物中进行的结果，从他们的工作，并允许其他人与分析互动，从而提高期刊文章。3.通过使用交互式电子书，培训社会科学研究人员掌握新的定量研究方法和新的统计软件。

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.