Change for behavior, policies, and systems
There is currently a good deal of attention on transparency of social science research – as there should be. Much of this is focused on keeping the analysis honest, including pre-analysis plans (e.g.) and opening up data for re-analysis (internal replication, e.g. here and here). Some of this will hopefully receive good discussion at anContinue reading "Small thoughts on transparency in research (descriptions of methods, analysis)"
CARL WIENS
In a recent opinion piece on the New York Times news portal the Upshot, Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth College, comments on a host of transparency related issues.
Closely echoing the mission of BITSS, Nyhan identifies the potential of research transparency to improve the rigor and ultimately the benefits of federally funded scientific research writing:
The problem is that the research conducted using federal funds is driven — and distorted — by the academic publishing model. The intense competition for space in top journals creates strong pressures for novel, statistically significant effects. As a result, studies that do not turn out as planned or find no evidence of effects claimed in previous research often go unpublished, even though their findings can be important and informative.
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When I need to decompress, zone out, and fall asleep, I have a tendency to watch familiar, I-can-recite-by-heart movies or TV shows to help. Just enough distraction to close down my other thoughts, not gripping enough to keep me awake. The 'Sherlock' TV series has joined these ranks. The more I watch 'A study inContinue reading "Sherlock Holmes and the Princess Bride"
This post is also available, lightly edited, here. I have been thinking a lot about 'theories of change' this week (just did some presenting on them here!). Actually, I have been thinking more about 'conceptual models,' which was the term by which I was first introduced to the general idea (via Vic Strecher in ConceptualContinue reading "Theories of change, stakeholders, imagined beneficiaries, & stealing from product design. That is, meet ‘Mary.’"
This post is only half-written so far, but I am posting the title as commitment device to get on with it in the face of other deadlines... stay tuned!
Via Reuters, KFF recently posted a short article about the ethics of giving experimental treatment to the 'hero doctor' Sheik Umar Khan -- and, really, to any of the trained health professionals who continue to show up to work even though they were at very real risk in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, in Nigeria andContinue reading "Ebola and public health ethics (ebolaethics?)"
There has been some complaint from some quarters that I have not recently provided any update about my life, reserving blog posts for slightly more wonky topics. This post will be a small antidote.* In Delhi, one way of dealing with the energy-sapping heat is nimboo pani -- literally "lemons water" but in actuality lemonadeContinue reading "Nimboo pani: challenges and triumphs"
Some posts maybe you are never ready to write. Nevertheless, the news of Marc Roberts's death over the weekend seems to warrant both an immediate response and the response that is just right. He seemed to usually be able to manage these simultaneously but, given the sense of time that follows a completion of a lifeContinue reading "Some posts… no shit"
I have been saying for some time that my next moves will be into monitoring and vital registration (more specifically, a "poor Richard" start-up to help countries to measure the certainties of life: (birth), death, and taxes. (If village pastors could get it done with ink and scroll in the 16th c across northern Europe,Continue reading "Data systems strengthening"
Heather E. Lanthorn 