UAP5494: Advanced Quantitative Techniques Used in Urban Analysis

Urban Affairs and Planning
Dr. Tom Sanchez

Course Hours

Tuesdays 4.15-6.30pm

Course Overview

This seminar introduces several advanced quantitative research methods. The objective is to provide students with exposure to these methods; focusing on assumptions, application, and interpretation. In addition, the course is oriented toward dissertation research activities and preparation of an article suitable for publication in an academic journal.

Grading

• 30% Critique/Reviews: For the scheduled topic, each person will locate an article that illustrates the particular method and post it to Blackboard. Each person will then prepare a 2-3 page summary of their article. Each summary will then be posted to Blackboard. A 2-3 page critique/review of each article and summary will be prepared, synthesizing, comparing, and contrasting the articles. Seminar discussions will focus on the critique/reviews. The summaries should comment on each of the following:
  • Problem statement.
  • Literature review.
  • Research design and data analysis methodology.
  • Results and findings.
  • Interpretation and conclusions.
• 70% Research Paper and Presentation.

Outline for the Research Paper

1. Introduction (the context of the study)
   The study may originate as a planning issue/problem of interest to you or as an inference from a theory or previous studies within planning. Briefly state your general research questions or hypotheses in this introduction.

2. The significance of the study (could be combined with Part I)
   What is the significance of the study? Why do you think it’s important? The fact that you are interested in this research is usually not enough. A study should be important in terms of its implications for associated problems, theories or debates. You must argue for why your proposed study is important in terms of gaps in previous knowledge or the need for new information to address problems or debates.

3. Related studies (literature review)
   Related studies should be cited; it’s your scholarly obligation. Use any standard stylebook or journal style in citing literature. Present a concise, thorough review of recent literature. Don’t just list related studies. Group studies on the basis of their findings where possible. Use general synthesizing statements to summarize the findings of related studies rather than describing these findings study by study. Be sure to include a complete bibliography or reference list after the text of the paper and before any attached tables, figures or appendices.

4. Research questions/hypotheses narrowed down and restated
   Most problems turn out to be programs. You don’t have the time or funding to do a whole program of research. You must narrow down the field to some starting point that is not too ambitious. State your specific hypotheses or research questions. These should flow logically from Parts I-III.

5. Methods
   Give an exact, detailed description of the methods you used to tackle your research problem, including questionnaires (for surveys and experiments) or codebooks (for content analyses). Ideally, another person who wants to replicate your study should be able to do so after reading this section.

6. Findings
   Present your findings clearly and concisely. Answer your research questions or address your hypotheses in order. Use tables or figures when they will help clarify the presentation. Include SPSS (or other statistical package) output in an Appendix to the paper, including the final frequencies of all variables used in your analyses.

7. Summary and conclusions
   Summarize the findings concisely and discuss how they fit with the other related studies you’ve cited earlier in the paper. Conclude with what you think your findings contribute to knowledge or theory about mass communication, and what still needs to be studied.

8. Bibliography or Reference List
   Don’t forget this. Make sure that all references mentioned in the text are included in this list.

Basic Bibliography

• E. R. Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, Wadsworth Publishing, 10th edition 2003.
• A. Field, Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, SAGE Publications Ltd, 2nd edition 2005.
• L. G. Grimm and P. R. Yarnold, Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics, American Psychological Association, 1995.
• S. B. Green, N. J. Salkind et al., Using SPSS for Windows: Analyzing and Understanding Data, Prentice Hall, 2nd edition 1999.
• J. F. Hair, B. Black et al., Multivariate Data Analysis, Prentice Hall, 6th edition 2005

Additional Bibliography

• StatSoft Electronic Textbook
• HyperStat Online Textbook
• Introductory Statistics
• Other reading on VT Blackboard.

Published by Julián Urbano on January 1 of 2007