Sage Research Methods Online has just started a free public beta test.  And the Library has started an institutional trial too.  The resource, which contains over 100,000 pages of books, journals, encyclopedias and handbooks, is designed to help you choose and implement the best social science research method for your project. You can use the Library’s trial or set up your own. Access is free (registration required) until the formal product launch in January 2011.  Please let me know if you have any feedback about this tool.

And if social science research is your thing, take a look at Methodspace, a social network for researchers that is also from Sage.  It’s free!

The Curfew

Readers of this blog have probably noticed that I am fond of visual ways of exploring complex issues.  Often that involves maps but sometimes, as with ICED, that means web-based games.  The Curfew is a game (currently in beta) from Channel4 and LittleLoud in the UK with the support of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others.

Set in an authoritarian Britain in 2027, the game allows you to explore, in a compelling, fun way, issues such as privacy, citizenship, security, surveillance, civil liberties, and human rights.  The production values are very high with a mix of live action and computer graphics and, if you login to your Facebook or Twitter accounts, it integrates information about you into the game as an extra creepy bonus.  Give it a look and let me know what you think!

Data Store: World Government Data

If you like your data international, free, and easy to find then the UK newpaper,  The Guardian, has a site for you!

World Government Data draws from publicly available government databases like data.gov for the US and the cleverly named data.gov.uk.  Now you can browse or cross-search government datasets from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, with more sources added as they come available.

Even better, though it’s Open Platform API, the Guardian gives you tools to build visualizations and create apps that use the Data Store.  You can browse some of the apps that have been created so far here.

Does your program  require that you use APA Style for the research papers you write?

Did you go out and buy the brand new 6th Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association?

Yes? Well, I have some bad news for you.

It seems that the first printing of the 6th edition is riddled with errors. What’s worse is that many of the errors are in the very examples you count on to make sure that your own writing is error-free.

How do you know if your copy of the 6th edition Manual is from the first printing? Two ways:

1. If you have the paperback and you bought it before November 2009 (in case you are reading this in the future), then you have one from the first printing.
2. If you have the hardcover or spiral bound book, just look at the fourth (unnumbered) page of the book. It’s the same page as the copyright and cataloging-in-publication data. At the bottom of the page it will say “First Printing” or “Second Printing”.

So, what can you do to be sure you are looking at the correct examples?  At the moment, all we can do is look at the two PDFs (here and here) of corrections that the APA has posted on their website.

At the moment, the APA has kindly decided that posting the errata in those PDFs is a better option than replacing the defective books with with the corrected second printing.  Don’t agree?   You could always contact APA Style to let them know how you think they should fix this problem.

Update: If you want to exchange your copy for a corrected “second printing” version they should be available after November 2 through the APA Service Center – 800 374-2721.

You can find an interesing story about this on the Inside Higher Ed blog.