Presenting results and presenting data
graphically
Sources on presenting
research results
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Start
here: Guidelines on reporting research - how to make sure you do a
good job of reporting research results.
Mostly there appear to be guidelines in the medical, public health
areas.
CONSORT http://www.consort-statement.org/
which stands for Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials,
encompasses various initiatives developed by the CONSORT Group to
alleviate the problems arising from inadequate reporting of
randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The main product of CONSORT is
the CONSORT Statement, which is an evidence-based, minimum set of
recommendations for reporting RCTs.
EQUATOR Network website http://www.equator-network.org/
the resource centre for good reporting of health research
studies. The EQUATOR Network is an international initiative
that seeks to enhance reliability and value of medical research
literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of
research studies.
FAME http://apps.who.int/tdr/svc/resources/partnerships-networks/fame-guidelines
Forum for African Medical Editors, aimed at addressing problems in
journals. One of the publications is http://apps.who.int/tdr/svc/publications/training-guideline-publications/fame-editorials
Fame Editorial guidelines. "The guidelines cover
essential areas of editorial and publishing standards, ethics and
scientific integrity as well as data
reporting and analysis, referencing and bibliographic
citations."
PRISMA http://www.prisma-statement.org/
stands for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews
and Meta-Analyses. It is an evidence-based minimum set of items for
reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
STROBE - Strengthening
the Reporting of Observational studies
in Epidemiology.
http://www.strobe-statement.org/
STROBE stands for an international, collaborative initiative of
epidemiologists, methodologists, statisticians, researchers and
journal editors involved in the conduct and dissemination of
observational studies
TREND http://www.cdc.gov/trendstatement/
the mission of the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with
Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) group is to improve the reporting
standards of nonrandomized evaluations of behavioral and public
health interventions.
These guidelines about presenting results, and other guidelines
about other aspects of publishing, are listed here http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html
But see this 2011 study about medical/public health research:
Bennett C, Khangura S, Brehaut JC, Graham ID, Moher D, et al. (2011)
Reporting Guidelines for Survey Research: An Analysis of Published
Guidance and Reporting Practices. PLoS Med 8(8): e1001069.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001069 http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001069
This paper says that there seem to be problems
about reporting the quality of survey research. The authors write
"Our own review of 117 published survey studies revealed that many
items were poorly reported: few studies provided the survey or core
questions (35%), reported the validity or reliability of the
instrument (19%), defined the response rate (25%), discussed the
representativeness of the sample (11%), or identified how missing
data were handled (11%)."
This paper says many studies don't report the interventions in much
detail.
Susan Michie1, Dean Fixsen, Jeremy M Grimshaw and Martin P Eccles.
Specifying and reporting complex behaviour change interventions: the
need for a scientific method. Implementation Science 2009,
4:40. http://www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/40/
"Few published intervention evaluations refer to
formal documentation describing the content and delivery of an
intervention and are seldom reported by researchers or practitioners
in enough detail to replicate them [5,6]. Reviews of nearly 1,000
behaviour change outcome studies [7-10] found that interventions
were described in detail in only 5% to 30% of the experimental
studies."
Tips on how to present results
Improving data visualisation for the public sector http://www.improving-visualisation.org/
"This site supports public sector researchers
improve the way that they visualise data, by providing good practice
examples and case studies, practical and step-by-step guides on how
to visualise data, and links to more detailed resources."
STATS - STeve's Attempt to Teach Statistics http://www.childrensmercy.org/stats/
has a good set of class notes on presenting data. Go go
Training Opportunities at Children's Mercy Hospital http://www.childrensmercy.org/stats/training.asp
and
then
see
the
handout
for
class
number 43. Guidelines for Good Graphics. Its in word format.
BTS’s Guide to Good Statistical Practice http://www.bts.gov/publications/guide_to_good_statistical_practice_in_the_transportation_field/index.html
This is a guide on how to present data analysis and how
to discuss data quality and errors.
Gallery of Data Visualization: The Best and Worst of Statistical
Graphics http://www.datavis.ca/gallery/index.php
National Center for Educational Statistics, Create a
Graph http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/
a site for students, to show how to use various graph
formats. See these two lessons
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/help/user_guide/graph/bar.asp
about bar charts,
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/help/user_guide/graph/line.asp
about line graphs
Statistics: Power from data. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/power-pouvoir/toc-tdm/5214718-eng.htm
has a section describing presenting data http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/power-pouvoir/ch9/5214821-eng.htm
showing examples of different types of graphs.
Guidelines for Effective Data Presentations http://www.prb.org/EventsTraining/TrainingMaterials/GuidelinesforEffectivePresentations.aspx
from
Population
Reference
Bureau.
Or
go
to
http://www.prb.org/
then click on "library".
Presenting Data: Tabular and graphic display of social
indicators http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jpda/
from Gary Klass
Using Graphics to Report Evaluation Results http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Using-Graphics-to-Report-Evaluation-Results-P1022C236.aspx
from University of Wisconsin Extension.
Exploring Data: graphs and numerical summaries http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1710
a
class
by
The
Open
University's
Learning
Space.
CDC's Brief 12 http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/evaluation/resources.htm
Using Graphs and Charts to Illustrate Quantitative Data
Visual Literacy Org http://www.visual-literacy.org/
has various demonstrations, documents, etc including this Periodic
Table of Visualization Methods
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
AEA has a blog stream about data visualization http://aea365.org/blog/?cat=595
many contributions
Statistical Graphics Section http://stat-computing.org/
section of American Statistical Association. Has section
newsletter and list of links.
This page lists a couple of books, as well as web sites, because
these books are so highly recommended.
books by Edward Tufte, especially
Envisioning information, graphics press, 1990
the visual display of quantitative information, graphics
press, 1987
books by William Cleveland, especially
visualizing data , hobart press, 1993
the elements of graphing data, CRC press, 1994
I found some of the above link on Betty Jungs links to graphics
page http://www.bettycjung.net/Graphing.htm
which
also
has
a
great
many
links
about presenting data.
Graphing sociology http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/
the author of this page, Laura Noren, presents graphs, charts or
tables and analyzes why they work or don't work.
Sites about general presentation
tips:
KU Medical Center page on effective presentations http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/effective.html
has on line basic tutorial for preparing graphics, its an overview.
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art1.html
Presentation Skills for
Emergent Managers
PowerPoint Presentation
Advice http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/splane_m/PresentationTips.htm This is not an
easy to read page, but it does have very useful and important
tips.
A Conference of Mind and Mouth: The Ultimate Public Speaking
Resource Guide http://www.accuconference.com/resources/public-speaking.aspx
links to speaking and presentation tips
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
a
Ted talk. A nice demonstration of how to present data.
Here is a summary of his talk http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/six-simple-techniques-for-presenting-data-hans-rosling-ted-2006/
The essential collection of visualisation resources http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/resources/
this is 6 part series. Part 1 is about tools.
Prepare charts on line
Tableau public http://www.tableausoftware.com/public
says
you can make charts for free
This site http://oca.dc.gov/oca/lib/oca/performance_toolkit/Capstat_and_tableau.pdf
uses
the professional version
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HOW TO PREPARE REPORTS
How to Avoid Plagiarism http://www.csub.edu/ssric-trd/howto/plagiarism.htm
by Earl Babbie. Make sure you
follow this advice!
Plain Language.gov http://www.plainlanguage.gov/index.cfm
from
the
US Govt, especially see the guidelines
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/bigdoc/TOC.cfm
with
sections
like short sections, useful headings, etc.
Program managers guide to evaluation, chapter 9, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/other_resrch/pm_guide_eval/reports/pmguide/pmguide_toc.html
gives an example outline on how to prepare an evaluation
report.
How to Write a Scholarly Research Report http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=13
by Rudner, Lawrence M. & William D. Schafer
(1999). in Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation,
6(13). Brief introduction and descriptions of sections in a
report.
Writing research papers http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html
general guide for biostat reports, but still useful.
Statpac paper http://statpac.com/research-papers/
How to Write a Research Proposal or Paper
Writing a report http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/670/01/
overall general guide
Links to sites with info about apa style http://www.psywww.com/resource/apacrib.htm
Writing Reports http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~paul/tutorials/report/info.htm
Brief
descriptions
of
sections
that
go
in
research reports.
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last updated 9/28/11
last verified 9/28/11
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