Government Social Research
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MSc in Policy Analysis and Evaluation - deadline for applications is 1 September 2005 for Government Social Researchers to apply for this new MSc qualification in Policy Analysis and Evaluation which will be run jointly by the Government Social Research Unit, Cabinet Office and the Institute of Education, University of London.
Publication of Managing risks to the public: Appraisal Guidance (pdf) [Treasury website] - supplementary guidance to the Green Book, Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government - provides guidance for developing and assessing proposals that affect the risk of fatalities, injury and other harms to the public in line with the Government's Principles of Managing Risks to the Public [Treasury website] - openness and transparency, involvement, proportionality and consistency, evidence and responsibility. The guidance also contains a tool to help structure and make explicit the evaluation of concerns that may exist about risks of fatality and harm.
The Scientist article retracted [Scientist website] On 17 June, article in The Scientist (Science retracts highly cited paper) reported on a study on the causes of childhood illness retracted after author found guilty of falsifying data.
Quick But Not Dirty: Rapid Evidence Assessments (pdf, 41kb) - article in the Spring edition of the APSAC Advisor describes Rapid Evidence Assessments, a new approach to harnessing robust research evidence for policy makers in a more focussed and timely way than many other secondary research methods. The article describes the background to the first two REAs conducted, introduces the methodology and considers case study examples in detail. It concludes by discussing challenges and future implications for the REA approach.
Publication of Inside the Workplace - the first findings from the fifth Workplace Employment Relations Survey. Based on interviews with around 3,200 workplace managers (2,195 in the Cross-Section Survey and 991 in respect of the Panel Survey) and almost 1,000 employee representatives. Over 20,000 employees completed questionnaires. This represents response rates of 64 per cent, 77 per cent, 78 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively. The main fieldwork for the survey ran from February 2004 to April 2005 and was conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
Semi-monthly newsletter from Mathematica [Mathematica website] - contents include 1. Insuring the Uninsured: A Look at Two Opposing Points of View 2. Family Formation Issues: TANF and Food Stamp Use in Two-Parent Families 3. Maternity Group Homes: New Report Fills Gap in Knowledge Base 4. Methods Update: Statistical Power in Experimental Studies of Education.
Publication of Level 2 Adult Vocational Learning: a qualitative study of motivations, experiences and outcomes (pdf) [DfES website]
Publication of Department for Transport Research Programmes: overview June 2005 [DfT website]
Publication of Transport Technology and Standards: Planned Research 2005/06 [DfT website] - research undertaken by the DfT Transport Technology and Standards division will fall under three main programmes: vehicle technology, reducing congestion and choice and public transport.
Announcement of forthcoming publication of journal: Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, an international journal [Emerald website] Edited by Professor Catherine Cassell and Dr Gillian Symon and building in part on their RMP project 'Benchmarking Good Practice In Qualitative Management Research'.
First issue of e-Social Science News (pdf) [NCeSS website] published - gives a general introduction to e-social science and the current NCeSS research programme.
The future of science and technology in Europe [Europa website]- on 16 June 2004 the European Commission proposed increasing the European Union's research funding to an average of €10 billion a year for the duration of the next framework programme.
Government Response to 'The Work of Research Councils'[OST website]: The government response to the report by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee: 'The Work of Research Councils UK (RCUK)'.
Next EU funding round to release EUR 658 million for health and food research [Europa website] - the next calls for proposals for research activities funds of the European Union for the areas of life sciences, genomics, biotechnology, food quality and food safety amount to EUR 658 million. These large calls within the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6, 2002-2006) are the last major research funding round before the next Framework Programme (FP7), which is to be adopted in 2006. At the occasion of its participation at the international BIO 2005 International Convention (19 to 22 June, Philadelphia, USA) the European Commission gives an outlook on the forthcoming areas of research funding.
'devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences...'
Each network encourages the early distribution of research results by publishing Submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world ... hundreds of journals, publishers, and institutions in Partners in Publishing that provide working papers for distribution through SSRN's eLibrary and abstracts for publication in SSRN's electronic journals.
The eLibrary consists of two parts: an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 94,200 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 67,700 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. The eLibrary also includes the research papers of a number of Fee Based Partner Publications.
The Networks encourage readers to communicate directly with authors and other subscribers concerning their own and others' research. To facilitate this, [SSRN] publish detailed author contact information including email addresses for authors of each paper. [SSRN] also provide electronic delivery of the papers when authors wish [them] to do so from the eLibrary. You may also Browse the SSRN eLibrary, view ... current Top Papers or search the electronic library for papers by Title, Author, or Journal/Topic.
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The next bulletin will be published in September 2005