Government Social Research
29 November 2006 - Department for Communities and Local Governmnet (DCLG) publish the State of the Cities Database (SOCD) and the State of the English Cities thematic reports
SOCD provides access to the updated data that underpins the analysis contained in State of the English Cities Report (SOCR), published in March 2006.
24 November 2006 - Scottish Executive publish:
The Statistics and Registration Service Bill
Introduced in the Commons on 21 November 2006, published on 22 November 2006.
22 November 2006 - DCLG publish Survey of English Housing 2005-06
Provisional results summary which previews provisional findings
Intute: Social Sciences post Podcast
First broadcast in a pilot series of twelve. Each programme features Social Science related information news, an interview with a Social Science information provider and a selection of the new resources added to Intute: Social Sciences. If you have any social science related news or websites that you would like to see featured, contact paul.ayres@bristol.ac.uk. Intute are also keen to receive feedback at this address.
21 November 2006 - Home Office (HO) publish Online report 22/06: Evaluating European Refugee Fund and Challenge Fund services
Focuses particularly on projects encouraging social and economic integration. The research was qualitative, consisting of 50 interviews with project users.
17 November 2006 - Scottish Executive publish:
15 November 2006 - HM Treasury publish Independence for statistics: the Government response
The event brought together a panel of many of North America's leading evaluation experts, including Michael Scriven, Thomas Schwandt, Gary Henry, Melvin Mark and Russell Gersten and included a lively debate on the pros and cons of randomised controlled trials, together with videos of selected presentations and panel discussions on both experimental and non-experimental ways of 'building credibility'.
Research Councils UK (RCUK) has commissioned an analysis of the costs of peer review of research proposals, both to institutions and the research councils, and has published its own report on the issues.
Now it wants to gather a wider spectrum of views and has launched a consultation exercise, with a deadline of 19 January 2007.
15 November 2006 - Mathematica publish semimonthly update
Contents include:
14 November: ESRC issue invitation to submit proposals for the scientific leadership of the UK Household Longitudinal Study
Closing date for applications is 4pm on Tuesday 9th January 2007.
13 November 2006 - Scottish Executive publish:
Joined
up policy and practice in health and transport; research findings
Explores the growing links between transport and health at policy and practice
levels, to learn from what has already been achieved in this field in Scotland
and elsewhere. Recommendations on how joined up working can be promoted
further in the future have also been made. The work focuses on transport's
links with improvements to public health, and not on access to healthcare
facilities.
10 November 2006 - National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling publish Moving beyond traditional cash measures of economic well-being: including indirect benefits and indirect taxes
Most studies of economic well-being now use equivalent disposable income as their measure of resources, ignoring the benefits of publicly provided goods and services and the impact of all sources of taxation apart from income tax and social security contributions. This study of the UK and Australia includes health, education and housing indirect benefits and a range of indirect taxes, and suggests that in both countries indirect benefits are not as progressive in their incidence as direct benefits, but are nonetheless unambiguously pro-poor.
9 November 2006 - DCA publish A trouble shared: legal problem clusters in solicitors and advice agencies
Examines the ways in which clients present their problems to legal advisers, and the ability of advice services to provide holistic approaches to advice and dispute resolution.
More information available from kim williams
8 November 2006 - House of Commons Science and Technology Committee publish:Scientific evidence, risk and evidence based policy making (Seventh Report, HC 900-I)
Includes evidence from Chief Government Social Researcher, Sue Duncan. The report concludes that the Government should not overplay the mantra of evidence based policy, but should acknowledge more openly the many drivers of policy making, as well as any gaps in the relevant research base. It makes the case for greater public investment in research to underpin policy making and recommends the establishment of a cross-departmental fund to commission independent policy-related research.
7 November 2006 - Parliamentary Library, Australia publish Overweight and obesity in Australia
Despite the high profile of obesity as a public health issue, some aspects of the debate rest on limited evidence and/or outdated data, including: out-dated national time trend data on children and inadequate measures of obesity and overweight. This e-brief provides links to sources and an overview of the current state of obesity and overweight in Australia. Information on how overweight and obesity are measured is presented, followed by a brief discussion on the limitations of these measures. Prevalence data for obesity and overweight in children and adults is then presented and limitations of this data are discussed. The need for a national nutrition survey and recent developments in this area are discussed, and finally some links to information and sources are provided.
7 November 2006 - Home Office publish:
6 November 2006 - Nuffield Foundation publish Law in the real world: improving our understanding of how law works
Discusses the need for more empirical research about the law and for building capacity in the field of socio-legal research.
6 to 26 November 2006 - International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) ask for GSR help with their user survey to monitor user satisfaction and to help improve the service for users.
The results of the survey will also feed into the application to the ESRC for funding beyond March 2008. The survey should take only about ten minutes to complete and is available online from 6 to 26 November 2006. IBSS online service is available to central government departments via their intranet - contact your department library for further details
6 November 2006 - Mathematica publish semimonthly update
Contents include:
Youth smoking prevention: the role of stress and social status; Preventive care goals for low birth weight infants in Medicaid; Targeting people with developmental disabilities and children; Employment issues for people with disabilities
3 November 2006 - The Australia Institute publish Wind Farms: the facts and the fallacies
An assessment of the main arguments used to justify opposition to wind farms, namely: the competitiveness and cost of wind energy; its efficiency and reliability; its ability to reduce greenhouse emissions; fire risk and noise pollution; impacts on biodiversity, landscape and heritage values; and effects on property prices. The evidence indicates that almost all of the claims made by anti-wind groups lack substance.
ESRC announce publication of Risk in social sciences
Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby and Jens Zinn, published by Oxford University Press which explains how the break-neck speed of technological innovation, coupled with a collapse of confidence in public authorities, “experts” and corporations, has pushed 'risk' to the top of the research agenda.
3 November 2006 - Scottish Executive publish:
2 November 2006 - Mathematica publish semimonthly update
Contents include:
Early childhood development handbook: uses of preschool assessments, Head Start effectiveness; Latino parents' interactions with their children; Medicaid buy-in and health insurance issues; Mathematica work for the What Works Clearinghouse.
Call for evidence: closing date 15 December
The Academy of Medical Sciences has established a working group to produce a set of principles, illustrated with specific examples, to determine the potential problems and likely success of non-experimental methods in biomedical research. The foundations of this proposal lie in a feeling of public scepticism about the value of non-experimental approaches in biomedical research, which arises when claims from one study are so soon reversed by the findings of another. Nevertheless, in some cases, non-experimental methods have clearly been successful, for example in determining the health risks associated with smoking.
The Academy now invites views on this topic in order to build a robust evidence base from which to make helpful recommendations.