Government Social Research
28 April 2006 - Closing date for ESRC (CASE) Studentships x 3 at Nottingham Trent University Graduate School. College of Business, Law and Social Sciences.
27 April 2006 - Home Office RDS announce publication of the following:
25 April 2006 - Microsoft launches Google Scholar rival
Article in The Scientist which describes it as a beta version of a tool called Windows Live Academic Search , which will index peer-reviewed subscription content from a range of publishers, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Blackwell Publishing, Elsevier, Nature Publishing Group, the British Library, and John Wiley & Sons Inc.
25 April 2006 - Joseph Rowntree Foundation publish The persistence of poverty across generations: a view from two British cohorts
This report explores the strength of the link between childhood poverty and poverty later in life, and asks whether this link has grown stronger or weaker in recent decades. Using information on the incomes of two British cohorts who were teenagers either in the 1970s or in the 1980s, it asks:
24 April 2006 - Washington, DC - The American Institutes for Research (AIR) publishes a first-ever scientifically based review (CSRQ Center Report on Education Service Providers)
Providing comparative ratings on the effectiveness and quality of seven widely adopted education service providers that generally serve low-performing schools in low income areas.
The findings by AIR’s Comprehensive School Reform Quality ( CSRQ)
Center, which reviewed all publicly available research and information on
each model, found that despite their popularity, there is only limited scientific
evidence of their effectiveness. Six of the models are for-profit entities,
while one - Imagine Schools - changed its status to nonprofit during the
review.
The report concludes that only one model - Edison Schools - currently has
a solid body of evidence of its efficacy.
21 April 2006 - Will EU beat UK in open access?
Article in The Scientist says that an EU report has urged funders to guarantee open access to research, but there's still no RCUK policy in sight.
21 April 2006 - Australia & New Zealand Health Policy publish Measuring social capital in a known disadvantaged urban community
Health policy implications finds that Measuring social capital on a population level is complex and the use of epidemiologically-based population surveys does not produce overly valuable results.
20 April 2006 - Human Resources and Social Development Canada publish Incidence and Persistence of Early Literacy Problems: Evidence from the NLSCY, 1994-2000
"The analysis of this paper employs data from the first three cycles of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to analyze the factors associated with early literacy problems and the persistence of early literacy problems."
These bodies have joint aims to promote improvement in patient care and efficiency in the NHS and public health.
6 April 2006 - UK drug trial effects were 'unpredicted'
Article in The Scientist on a preliminary report which suggests that neither the manufacturing process nor problems in dosing or study protocol were to blame for the violent reactions that felled six healthy volunteers last month who took a new monoclonal antibody designed to treat autoimmune disease and leukemia. Instead, the report suggests that an "unpredicted biological action of the drug" caused the reactions in humans. The interim report from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was published on 5 April 2006.
The ESRC National Centre for Research Methods
The April news letter has now been issued.
The Northern Ireland Office Statistics and Research Branch have published:
The April issue of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology includes a paper (A user perspective on research quality*) by Sue Duncan and Anne Harrop.
The paper says that, if we are to encourage the use of research evidence in policy and practice, our notion of research quality must go wider than the robustness of the research itself. We need to address both internal and external validity. Therefore, ‘evidence-based policy and practice’ has a simple logic which belies the complexity of the relationship. It is both a difficult and challenging one, which demands change in culture and practice on both sides in order to achieve its potential. There are many examples of the positive contribution that research, and researchers themselves, can make and some positive evidence that barriers are being addressed. The authors argue for a continued effort on both sides, so that the contribution that research can make to policy and practice can be fully realised.
* Int. J. Social Research Methodology Vol. 9, No. 2, April 2006, pp. 159-174
The Employment Market Analysis and Research (EMAR) branch of the Department of Trade and Industry - publications during April:
These reports are all part of the Employment Relations Research Series and can be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/research-evaluation/errs/page13419.html
The Environment Social Research Team in the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department
Embark on work to explore how the general public perceive and value bodies of water in the environment, to inform the implementation of the EC Water Framework Directive, which applies to all water in the natural environment.