Government Social Research
Welcome to the latest GSR bulletin - the first from the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU)'s new home in HM Treasury.
This bulletin is published to coincide with ESRC Social Science Week 2006 which celebrates some of the very best British social science research, as well as highlighting the ways in which social science touches our everyday lives.
Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.
Visit the New Research page for more recent items.
GSRU transferred from the Cabinet Office to HM Treasury on 6 March 2006, as announced by the Prime Minister last November, as part of machinery of government changes to help strengthen links between government analysts. You'll notice some cosmetic changes to GSRweb to reflect our new home, plus a new search engine. GSR members can check new GSRU contact details on the GSR Staff Directory shortly.
Publication of GSR professional guidance: procurement of government
social research
The Government Social Research Unit, in collaboration with the Office for
Government Commerce (OGC), has produced a document in the GSR Professional
Guidance series on the procurement
of social research. It has been developed to summarise, reference and
interpret OGC guidance as it refers to government social research. It was
designed to clarify specific issues that had been highlighted as potentially
difficult to interpret when procuring social research and resolve potential
inconsistencies between departments.
GSR members will wish to see the evidence on scientific advice to government, given to the Science and Technology Committee by Sue Duncan, Chief Government Social Researcher and Sir Dave King, Head of OST on 15 February. Printed minutes of the proceedings are now online.
You can hear a broadcast recording of the proceedings at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/ by clicking on Archive > Committees and inserting 15 February 2006 and Science and Technology in the boxes.
GSRweb usage continues upwards, with record numbers of Page impressions in February. Visits were down slightly from January's record but still recorded the second highest figure ever, and February is a short month. This is reflected in the increase in average daily visits (525) and in unique visitors (4,558)
Thank you for contributing to this ongoing success. Key usage statistics for February 2006 (figures in brackets for February 2005):
Social Research databases - you may have noticed the new addition to the CSA front end. Under Scholar Databases it's called Community of Scholars™: Social Science . Perhaps you know it? A quick search using the term "Systematic review" retrieved 338 results. You might like to give it a spin and let me know what you think.
GSR people
Judith Sidaway has retired as head of DCA's Research Unit. Judith
took up her post at the DCA (then LCD) tasked with establishing research
within the department's agenda and has left having created a legacy of evidence-led
policy and a dedicated research team at the heart of the department's strategic
functions. She was instrumental in establishing the Courts and Diversity
programme of research, which looks at issues of ethnicity and the court
system and has so far produced 7 reports of great insight. More generally,
she will be missed as a driving force behind robust and worthwhile research
among the Consumer Strategy Directorate, the DCA and beyond. Judith is keen
to point out that she has only taken part-retirement and plans to remain
involved in the world of socio-legal investigation. We wish her all the
best with this as well as some hard earned relaxation.
DCA have announced that Christina Golton will replace Judith. Christina is joining DCA from ODPM and will take up her post shortly. We hope to have news in the next bulletin.
Jan White's appointment as Head of Profession for Social Research in ODPM has been approved by Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary ODPM.
Scottish Executive have appointed Diana Wilkinson as new Chief Researcher. Diana has had a long career in social research at the Scottish Executive most recently as Head of Analytical Services Unit in Children, Young People and Social Care within the Education Department. Diana is looking forward to the challenges of leading government social research in Scotland.
The Rural Social Research team in the Scottish Executive’s Environment and Rural Affairs Department are developing a key 'mainstreaming' role
The GSR Fast Stream In-Service programme has arrived. Click here for your invitation to the launch event on 3 April
Ethics training: 27 and 28 April - spaces are still available on the ethics training being development by Professor Roger Jowell. Professor Jowell, founder of the National Centre for Social Research and the Centre for Comparative Social Surveys at City University, has extensive experience in dealing with ethical issues and has been responsible for developing some of the most important guidance in this area. The aim of the two-day training is to increase the awareness of ethical issues amongst GSR members in terms of conducting, commissioning and managing social research and to ensure GSR members, and particularly departmental ethical sponsors, are aware of the processes and procedures that can be used to manage ethical risk. Specific objectives are to:
You can sign up for this course via the Online Booking Form on the GSRU Courses and Seminars page
GSRU and the Institute of Education have announced details of the 2006/2007 Masters programme for government social researchers in Policy Analysis and Evaluation. Applications will be accepted from the beginning of April - to align with performance and development reviews - to 1st September 2006 for entry in October 2006. Click here for full details and the application form.
Defra publishes a regular booklet of economic and social research which the Department is expecting to commission from external researchers.
The Spring Edition of Defra's Research Booklet, detailing forthcoming economic and social research and evaluations which the Department wishes to commission in Spring/Summer 2006, is now available at http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/evaluation/Resbookmar06.pdf. The deadline for responses is 1pm Monday 27 March 2006.
Expressions of interest should be submitted using the form available on the Defra website at http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/evaluation/epes1(wd).doc
Any queries should be directed to Nilum Patel in the Central Analytical Directorate at Defra: cad@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Scottish Executive Health Department Small Research Projects Initiative - Social Researchers in the Scottish Executive’s Health Department run an annual, open research competition to support Scotland’s population-based National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being. The initiative, which was launched in 2004, provides funding for small, innovative research projects, many of which are evaluations of local mental health improvement work. Proposals which actively include people who are users of mental health services are particularly welcomed. There is a strong capacity-building element to the initiative and less experienced researchers are supported during the competition and through to completion of their final reports. Each grant holder is encouraged to develop a appropriate dissemination strategy as part of their project work. For more details of the initiative and the 18 projects funded to date, see: http://www.wellscotland.info/small-research-projects.html
Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) in Canada publish Evaluating search and matching models using experimental data - this working paper introduces an innovative test of the quantitative performance of search and matching models that uses information that is becoming available through social experiments. It presents a prototypical Pissarides matching model and calibrates it to control group data from the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP). Then a program group is simulated from a randomized experiment within the model, and the outcomes are compared with those of the program group from SSP. More details on the SRDC website
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) publish Review of research on the impact of violent computer games on young people [DCMS website] which examines the academic literature on violent video games and violent behaviour. It ensures that all the key studies examining the relationship between playing violent computer games and real-world violence in young people between 1985 and 2004 are covered, and advises on the quality and reliability of that research. The researchers go on to make recommendations on how current gaps in our knowledge of this area could be filled.
Office of National Statistics (ONS) publish the consultation document for the disclosure review of Health Statistics [ONS website] The consultation period is 6 weeks and will end on 7 April. ONS would be grateful if you could assist in the dissemination of the document, by forwarding the link to your contacts within the health community. For your information and to avoid duplication, the attached document contains a list of those to whom ONS have already sent the link as well as the covering email used.
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU), University of Toronto publishes 'What do we know about quality in early learning and child care, and what do we think? A literature review' - Working document from CRRU’s Quality by Design project “reviews the literature on ideas, research, policy and practice vis-à-vis quality in ELCC.”
Family Matters, Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) publish an overview (What can the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children tell us about infants' and 4 to 5 year olds' experiences of early childhood education and care?) of data from the Growing Up in Australia study on patterns of use of child care.
Scottish Executive announce launch of GoWell - the first study of its kind in Europe - to investigate the impact of the planned £1 billion investment in the health and wellbeing of individuals and families located in some of Glasgow's most deprived communities.
Statistics Canada publish Canada at a Glance 2006 (PDF file - 1MB, 27 pages) (under "The Daily - New products") - "presents the current Canadian demographic, education, health, justice, housing, income, labour market, economic, travel, financial, and foreign trade statistics... Also includes important international comparisons, so that readers can see how Canada stacks up against its neighbours. Updated yearly ... a very useful reference for those who want quick access to current Canadian statistics." [website]
Mathematica publish semimonthly update [Mathematica website] Contents include: Surveying people with disabilities; Hunger in America: comprehensive national survey findings; Population Association of America meeting
Home Office announce publication of the following new research [Home Office website]
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) publish the first report of the Juvenile Justice national minimum data set (NMDS). The data in the report cover the period 2000-01 to 2003-04, with the main focus of findings being on the latest year.
Office of National Statistics (ONS) published Social Trends 36
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish Education and social mobility in Scotland in the 20th Century by the Centre for Educational Sociology (CES), which finds that education policy, by itself, contributes little to the rate at which people move between social classes. Comprehensive schooling is neither less nor more effective at promoting social mobility than a selective system.
Econlit - Electronic bibliography of economics literature throughout the world, from 1969 onwards. EconLit contains abstracts, indexing, and links to full-text articles in economics journals. It abstracts books and indexes articles in books, working papers series, and dissertations. The EconLit Web pages list the journals indexed in EconLit and The Journal of Economic Literature with links to publishers' URLs.
Available at most GSR desktops - ask your departmental library for access details
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents of previous Bulletins. While visiting, see the updated External events page for news of opportunities in 2006.
Be sure to visit the Vacancies pages for all current job ads.
Have a good month. Copy deadline for next bulletin is 10 April 2006.