Paul Williams's List: RESEARCH

• • Chi Square - to test if variables are dependent.  Independent if p-value < 0.05??

• Survey analysis is one of the most commonly used research methods. Scholars, market researchers and organizations of all sizes use surveys to measure public opinion, gauge customer satisfaction and study a wide range of social and cultural issues. Fortunately, you don't have to be a research specialist or master statistician. Popular spreadsheet programs such as Excel, coupled with some basic statistical techniques, are sufficient to analyze data drawn from surveys.
• • What researchers use to analyze data
• Researchers use a wide range of statistical methods to analyze survey data. They do this using statistical software packages that are designed for research professionals. Popular programs include SAS, SPSS and Stata. However, many forms of survey data analysis can be done with a spreadsheet program such as Excel, which is part of Microsoft's popular Office package. Excel and other spreadsheet programs are user-friendly and excellent for entering, coding and storing survey data.
• Excel's data analysis capabilities make it possible to conduct some advanced analyses of survey data but not others. However, a program known as XLStat expands the analytical capabilities of Excel. This program is available for online purchase and download. A person who is interested in a research-oriented career or who expects to conduct a great deal of survey research might consider purchasing a more specialized statistical software packages. Tools such as SAS and SPSS are designed with research professionals in mind and make a full range of analytical methods possible.

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