Introduction to Regression Analysis

We've just added another short workshop to our schedule, and we're glad to announce it's in a new location for the Summer Program!

Introduction to Regression Analysis

DATES & TIME: July 6-10, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

INSTRUCTOR: Joe Waddington, University of Notre Dame

NEW SUMMER PROGRAM LOCATION: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland

DESCRIPTION: This course will serve as an introduction to applied ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. OLS regression serves as the foundation for the majority of advanced statistical courses or techniques you may encounter in your graduate school education or career. As such, the primary goal in this course is to understand the practical application of and intuition for using OLS regression. We will focus on the applied and intuitive understanding of topics, as opposed to purely theoretical or mathematical explanations. The course will be taught with multitude of instructional approaches, to gain a deeper understanding of OLS regression in its "mathematical," "English language," and "graphical" forms. We will focus on both bivariate and multiple OLS regression.

PREREQUISITES: All participants in this course are expected to have a requisite knowledge of topics from introductory statistics, as well as a basic understanding of algebra.
FEE: ICPSR members, $1500; Non-members, $3000

Workshops on Bayesian Analysis

Bayesian data analysis is rapidly supplanting traditional statistical methods because it provides richer inferences from empirical observations, without having to resort to ill-defined probability values in hypothesis tests. The Bayesian paradigm is particularly useful for the type of data that social scientists encounter, given its recognition of the mobility of population parameters, its ability to incorporate information from prior research, and its ability to update estimates as new data are observed.

In 2015, the ICPSR Summer Program is offering four workshops on Bayesian analysis.

Three- to Five-Day Workshops

July 7-10, 2015
Doing Bayesian Data Analysis: An Introduction
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: John Kruschke, Indiana University
DESCRIPTION: This workshop introduces participants to modern Bayesian methods. We will begin with the basic ideas of probability and Bayes' rule. After that, we move on to cover probability distributions, grid approximation, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, and Bayesian approaches to some specific statistical models (e.g., the multiple linear regression model, ANOVA, contingency table analysis, hierarchical models). Along the way, we will consider additional topics, including null hypothesis significance testing, Bayesian model comparison, Bayesian assessment of null values, and statistical power. Upon completion of this workshop, participants should be able to incorporate Bayesian tools into their own research projects and data analyses.
FEE: ICPSR Members, $1400; Non-members, $2800

August 3-5, 2015
An Applied Introduction to Bayesian Methods
LOCATION: Chapel Hill, NC
INSTRUCTOR: Jeffrey Harden, University of Colorado at Boulder
DESCRIPTION: This course will provide an introductory overview of Bayesian methods as they are applied to social science research. We will focus on the two complementary goals of learning the theory behind Bayesian inference as well as practical implementation of several common models in R.
FEE: ICPSR Members, $1300; Non-members, $2600


Four-Week Workshops

Session I: June 22-July 17, 2015
Introduction to Applied Bayesian Modeling for the Social Sciences
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Ryan Bakker, University of Georgia, and Johannes Karreth, University at Albany, State University of New York
DESCRIPTION: This course introduces the basic theoretical and applied principles of Bayesian statistical analysis in a manner geared toward students and researchers in the social sciences. The course begins with a discussion of the strengths of the Bayesian approach for social science data and the philosophical differences between Bayesian and frequentist analyses. Next, the course covers the theoretical underpinnings of Bayesian modeling and provides a brief introduction to the primary estimation algorithms. The bulk of the course focuses on estimating and interpreting Bayesian models from an applied perspective.
FEE: ICPSR Members, $2300 (before May 1); Non-members, $4600 (before May 1)

Session II: July 20-August 14, 2015
Advanced Bayesian Models for the Social Sciences
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Jeffrey Harden, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Daniel Stegmueller, University of Essex
DESCRIPTION: This course covers the theoretical and applied foundations of Bayesian statistical analysis at a level that goes beyond the introductory course. Topics include: Bayesian stochastic simulation (Markov chain Monte Carlo); model checking, model assessment, and model comparison, with an emphasis on computational approaches; Bayesian variants of "workhorse" political science models, such as linear models, models for binary and count outcomes, discrete choice models, and seemingly unrelated regression; and advanced Bayesian models, such as hierarchical/multilevel models, models for panel and time-series cross-section data, latent factor and item response theory (IRT) models, as well as instrumental variable models.
FEE: ICPSR Members, $2300 (before May 1); Non-members, $4600 (before May 1)

Text Analytics

Text Analytics

DATES & TIME: August 3-6, 2015, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Robert Stine, University of Pennsylvania

DESCRIPTION: Statistical methods for the analysis of textual data have come of age. We can mine textual data for underlying sentiments, scan for hateful or discriminatory language, or create features that improve familiar predictive models. This workshop explores how various text analytics can be understood, used, and developed by non-specialists in the field. View the full course description here.

PREREQUISITES: This course is self-contained with no explicit prerequisite beyond familiarity with statistical methods at the level of multiple regression. That said, some familiarity with multivariate methods (particularly principal components) and exposure to probability models would be helpful. The course will predominantly use packages from R as the main software tool.

STANDARD FEE: Members = $1200; Non-members = $2400
SPECIAL FEE: Participants who attend either of the two 2015 regular sessions (First Session or Second Session) are eligible for a special discounted fee of $960 to attend this evening workshop. To received this special discounted fee, please email the Summer Program at sumprog@icpsr.umich.edu

Training for Policy Analysts and Program Evaluation

Many of our workshops cover material that is particularly relevant for those interested in examining important societal problems and conducting evaluations of policy impacts. A few 3- to 5-day workshops of interest include:

Regression Discontinuity Designs
DATES & TIME: June 15-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Matias Cattaneo, University of Michigan, and Rocio Titiunik, University of Michigan
DESCRIPTION: Regression discontinuity designs are some of the most useful and potent research designs for evaluating program impacts, policy issues, and societal problems. This workshop covers the basic principles, estimation, and interpretation of regression discontinuity designs, as well as their applicability across a broad array of substantive areas.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1300; Non-member fees = $2600

Dynamic Models for Policy, Economics, and Society: Practical Time Series Methods

Image credit: Harold D. Clarke

DATES & TIME: July 20-24, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Harold D. Clarke, University of Texas at Dallas
DESCRIPTION: The course has an applied focus, and participants will learn how to specify, estimate, and evaluate multivariate time series models within their substantive fields of interest. Methods considered will be helpful to graduate students, faculty, and staff in the social sciences as well as policy analysts and other researchers working in the public and private sectors.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Designing and Conducting Experiments in the Laboratory
DATES & TIME: June 22-26, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Rick Wilson, Rice University, and Catherine Eckel, Texas A&M University
DESCRIPTION: This workshop introduces participants to basic research design considerations, the problems of inference for incomplete designs (particularly field experiments), and canonical games common in experimental economics. To learn about experiments, there is no substitute for doing. So, participants will work in four- to six-person groups to design experiments that will be run during the workshop.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Causal Inference in Cross-Sectional Data, Survival-Time Data, and Panel Data Using Stata
DATES & TIME: July 13-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: David Drukker, Stata Corporation
DESCRIPTION: This workshop provides an introduction to causal inference for cross-sectional data, survival-time data, and panel data. It uses a combination of intuition, mathematics, and computational examples to illustrate what causal inference parameters measure and how we estimate them using Stata.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Text Analytics
DATES & TIME: August 3-6, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Robert Stine, University of Pennsylvania
DESCRIPTION: Statistical methods for the analysis of textual data have come of age. We can mine textual data for underlying sentiments, scan for hateful or discriminatory language, or create features that improve familiar predictive models. This workshop explores how various text analytics can be understood, used, and developed by non-specialists in the field. This workshop runs for 4 nights.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1200; Non-member fees = $2400. (In addition, special fees apply for participants who attend either of the two 2015 regular 4-week sessions of the Summer Program.)

Network Analysis: An Introduction
DATES & TIME: June 1-5, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Ann McCranie, Indiana University
DESCRIPTION: This one week intensive workshop presents an introduction to various concepts, methods, and applications of social network analysis. The primary focus is on the analysis of relational data measured on groups of actors as they interact across geographic, economic, social, and political contexts.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Time Series Analysis: An Introduction for Social Scientists 
DATES & TIME: July 13-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Mark Pickup, Simon Fraser University and the University of Oxford
DESCRIPTION: Statistical models can be applied to a broad array of time series data in order to examine the movement of variables over time (e.g., government policy, public opinion, administrative decisions, socioeconomic measures). This course introduces time series methods that allow analysts to estimate relationships between variables and test hypotheses using dynamic, realistic models of important processes.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Workshop on the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)

Digging into the NSECE: Exploiting the Potential of the Household and Provider Data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)

DATES & TIME: July 20-23, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, Michigan
INSTRUCTORS: Johanna Bleckman, ICPSR, and Rupa Datta, NORC, University of Chicago
FEE: The workshop is free, but space is limited.
SPONSOR: Child Care & Early Education Research Connections data archive

The National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) is the first study of its kind in over 20 years. The NSECE provides a national picture of families' non parental care utilization, as well as characteristics of both home-based and center-based providers for children birth through age 13. The NSECE will help deepen the understanding of the extent to which families' needs and preferences coordinate with providers' offerings and constraints.

This workshop will provide an opportunity for researchers to explore advanced topics related to the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE). Along with a discussion of the unique characteristics of the NSECE, the workshop will introduce potential data users to technical issues associated with using the NSECE for secondary analysis. In addition, participants will receive guidance on mastering the complex aspects of the study, including useful programming techniques and additional statistical resources. Advanced topics will include the use of children's age categories, classifying types of care across files, and determining cost of care to families or price of care charged by providers. The workshop will discuss how to conduct comparable analyses across data files.

Some NSECE public-use data files are already available for secondary analysis through Research Connections. More public and restricted-use data files will become available on a rolling release schedule. This workshop will focus on the NSECE public-use files, however information covered may also be relevant to the NSECE restricted-use files. (Actual linking of household and provider data files will not be addressed, as such linkages require restricted-use data.)

PREREQUISITES: Interest in using the NSECE to answer policy relevant questions in early care and education. Participants must have programming experience in one or more of the following software packages: SAS, Stata, or SPSS. In addition, participants should have experience using large, complex survey data.

APPLICATION: All applications must include a curriculum vita along with a cover letter describing:

• research questions intended to be explored using the NSECE;
• prior early care and education research experience;
• and experience analyzing large, complex survey data (including specific data sets and types of analyses conducted).

You can upload your application materials through the ICPSR Summer Program's portal.

NOTE: Please also indicate the statistical package in which you intend to work. Participants will be expected to become familiar with NSECE documentation prior to attending the workshop.

DEADLINE: The application deadline is May 29, 2015.

STIPENDS: Admitted graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty/researchers will be considered for one of a limited number of stipends to help with travel and housing costs. To be considered for one of these awards, applicants must also submit a letter of support from a senior faculty member, mentor, or adviser.

Free Workshop: Exploratory Data Mining via SEARCH Strategies

Exploratory Data Mining via SEARCH Strategies

DATES AND TIME: June 8 - 12, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

LOCATION: Ann Arbor, Michigan

INSTRUCTOR: John J. McArdle, University of Southern California

DESCRIPTION: This workshop provides an overview of current techniques in exploratory data mining for quantitative research in the social and behavioral sciences. Exploratory data mining uses computational methods on large amounts of data in order to construct predictive models of behavior, in contrast to the standard hypothesis testing of many standard statistical techniques. These data mining techniques can be used to model categorical choices, to classify groups, to discover patterns, and to model longitudinal data. Exploratory data mining techniques can be fruitful in most situations where categorical regression or many multivariate analytic techniques are used.

This workshop will explore key algorithms, including regression trees and SEM models (CART, SEMtrees, PARTY, etc.). This work was initiated by the SAS algorithm SEARCH (Morgan & Sonnquest, 1963), and the workshop will begin here and then move to use of the free software modules in R that are currently used for exploratory data mining. The workshop will offer a mixture of mathematical statistics in the morning session and practical, hands-on work in the afternoon. Participants are encouraged to bring their own data to which they can learn to fit an exploratory model and write up the activity.

FEES: There are no registration fees for accepted participants. The first ten (10) admitted workshop participants will receive a travel stipend of $500.

SPECIAL AWARDS: Those completing the course will be eligible to compete for two (2) $15,000 awards for innovative uses of SEARCH.

APPLICATION: Admission to the course is competitive and seating is limited. Apply through the ICPSR Summer Program Portal, where you will need to upload the following documents: 

For graduate students:

• Letter describing reasons for attending course
• Current CV
• Unofficial transcript
• Letter of recommendation from adviser
• List of classes related to statistics and quantitative methods

For junior faculty:

• Letter describing reasons for attending course and research interests
• Current CV
• List of courses taught

The application deadline is April 30, 2015.

Visit the course description page for more information.

Upcoming 2015 Summer Program Deadlines

Scholarships
April 15, 2015: Applications due for the Janet Box-Steffensmeier and John A. Garcia Scholarships and the Hanes Walton, Jr. Award for Quantitative Methods Training

April 30, 2015: Applications due for all ICPSR Scholarships (Clogg, Clubb, Miller, Education Research, Developmental Psychology, and Public Administration, Public Policy, and Public Affairs)


Discounts
April 30, 2015: Early payment discount for four-week registration fees expires at 11:59 p.m. EDT


Sponsored Workshops
April 30, 2015: Applications due for the free workshop "Exploratory Data Mining Via SEARCH Strategies"

May 1, 2015: Applications due for the free workshop "Immigration, Immigrants and Health Conditions, Health Status, and Policies"

May 3, 2015: Applications due for the free workshop "Secondary Data Analysis and the National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP)"

May 29, 2015: Applications due for the free workshop "Digging Into the NSECE: Exploiting the Potential of the Household and Provider Data From the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)"

New 3- to 5-Day Workshops in 2015

June 1-3
Handling Missing Data Using Multiple Imputation in Stata
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Instructor: Yulia Marchenko, Stata Corporation
Description: Participants will learn how to use Stata to perform multiple-imputation analysis, a simulation-based technique for handling missing data. The workshop will discuss in detail the three stages of multiple imputation--imputation, complete-data analysis, and pooling--and provide accompanying Stata examples.
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,300; Non-members, $2,600

June 15-17
Regression Discontinuity Designs
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Instructors: Matias Cattaneo, University of Michigan, and Rocio Titiunik, University of Michigan
Description: This workshop introduces regression discontinuity (RD) designs, focusing on both basic ideas and concepts as well as recent developments. RD designs are quasi-experimental techniques commonly used in social, behavioral, and related sciences as a way of estimating causal treatment effects in cases where treatment assignment is determined based on a threshold crossing rule using an observed variable (e.g., poverty index, population, vote share, age, etc.).
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,300; Non-members, $2,600

June 22-24
Survival Analysis, Event History Modeling, and Duration Analysis
Location: Berkeley, California
Instructor: Tenko Raykov, Michigan State University
Description:  This workshop introduces an applied methodology for the analysis and modeling of time-to-event data, which ensures proper handling of censored observations (not having experienced the event of main interest by the end of the study, for various reasons). Such observations, along with complete observations, arise frequently in the medical, social, and behavioral sciences when time elapsed until event occurrence is to be modeled and explained in terms of independent variables and predictors.
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,300; Non-members, $2,600

June 22-26
Designing and Conducting Experiments in the Laboratory
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Instructors: Rick Wilson, Rice University, and Catherine Eckel, Texas A&M University
Description: Participants will learn the basics of experimental design, explore design considerations in the laboratory versus in the field, and become familiar with canonical laboratory designs.
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,500; Non-members, $3,000

July 20-24
Advanced Data Analytics: Statistical Learning and Latent Variables
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Instructor: Douglas Steinley, University of Missouri
Description: This course will combine the perspectives of latent variable modeling and statistical modeling to uncover relationships and processes within a given data set. Topics include principal component analysis and factor analysis and extensions (mixtures of factor analyzers, factor mixture models, etc.), latent trait models, latent class models, and mixture models.
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,500; Non-members, $3,000

August 3-6
Text Analytics
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Instructor: Robert Stine, University of Pennsylvania
Description: This workshop will explore the application of text analytics methods across a range of substantive topics and research areas. Techniques include using raw counts of words, forming principal components from these counts, and building regressors from counts of adjacent words. The workshop will also explore proposed hierarchical generating models often associated with nonparametric Bayesian analysis. Because regressors derived from text may be difficult to interpret, the workshop will also show how to develop interpretive hooks from quantitative features.
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,200; Non-members, $2,400

August 10-12
Qualitative Research Methods
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Instructor: Paul Mihas, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Description: Participants will learn the rationale for using different qualitative research traditions (e.g., grounded theory and narrative analysis); approaches to analyzing qualitative data, including coding, memo writing, assessing co-occurences, and theme-building; different coding approaches, including descriptive, interpretive, holistic, and micro-coding; different memo-writing approaches (e.g., reflective, document summary, key quotation, statement, and positionality); and basic skills in qualitative software (ATLAS.ti).
Fee: ICPSR members, $1,300; Non-members, $2,600