Contextual annealing: Research rolling - hotter, colder, hotter

In conducting research you focus on the question, then the method follows. You may have to go back to the question (in truth) as the methods available to you present their own opportunities and constraints.

Over the past two months this has been a questionnaire within residential care facilities.

Sometimes a confounding factor is to how to describe the study. It's a bit like the figure-ground illusion. One minute you are thinking of the individual, the care worker; the next moment the organisation.

Perspectives shift all the time. This is one of the roles of Hodges' model. The ability to switch from individual to group (population) and various other perspectives and contexts.

I’ve an image of an iceberg. At any one time the questionnaire study’s above the water, the institutional case study under: but then it rolls.

Social Science Research Questions & Methodological Challenges in the 21st Century

ICOSS, University of Sheffield
219 Portobello, Sheffield, S1 4DP

www.shef.ac.uk/icoss

This seminar series will explore some of the key methodological challenges that the social sciences face in addressing research priorities in the 21st Century. Some of these areas involve continuity in topic and approach, whereas others involve new characteristics and aspects of social life.

The seminars will involve researchers discussing the kinds of research questions they are beginning to ask and looking at the methodological approaches and challenges that these questions pose. We will explore this in four seminars that relate to contemporary social issues, covering:

• Wellbeing and disadvantage
• Diversity and community
• Vulnerabilities and risks
• The relationship between social and digital worlds.

Following these four seminars, there will be a roundtable event, where there will be broad discussion about the methodological challenges and how the research community might address these.


Read more about the seminars.

Seminar dates:
• Tuesday 20 May 2014
• Monday 30 June 2014
• Wednesday 16 July 2014
• Wednesday 15 October 2014

Final roundtable event:
• Wednesday 26 November 2014

How to participate:
There are a number of ways in which you can participate in the series and join the conversation:
* All submissions will be subject to peer review.

1. Submit an abstract to present a 20-minute paper at one of the four seminars
We welcome abstracts for papers related to one of the 4 seminar themes. Based on ESRC priority areas, these themes are purposefully broad and papers may be based on work in progress, methodological or empirical issues you are currently grappling with as well as thoughts on future research potential and papers relating to completed projects. We welcome paper presentations from researchers of all career stages.

If you would like to present a paper please submit a title and abstract of no more than 250 words by completing the online abstract submission form(link)/by emailing your abstract to http://methodologicalchallenges.group.shef.ac.uk/ (please indicate which seminar you would like to present at and state whether you will be presenting in person or via weblink) three abstracts will be selected for each seminar.
The deadline for abstracts is 14^th April 2014.

2. Submit a written ‘think piece’ for dissemination on the seminar series’ website
We invite 400 word peer reviewed ‘think pieces’ for dissemination on the website. These could include (but are not limited to): reflections upon a particular research issue, experience or dilemma; thoughts or opinions on a particular issue affecting today’s research community; an annotated extract from your data or field diary. Think pieces may or may not relate to the themes of the seminars. Think pieces can be emailed to http://methodologicalchallenges.group.shef.ac.uk/ for peer review from 14^th April. Think pieces will be accepted throughout the duration of the series.

3. Submit a poster to be displayed on the accompanying website
We invite posters for dissemination on the website. Posters should be in PDF format… and could be based on a particular project, method, idea or experience. Posters may or may not relate to the themes of the 4 seminars. If you would like to submit a poster please submit an expression of interest using the abstract submission form http://methodologicalchallenges.group.shef.ac.uk/. Posters will be accepted throughout the duration of the series.

4. Attend a seminar and/or the roundtable event either in person or virtually
You are very welcome to attend the seminars and round table event and join in the discussion. You can do this in person by coming along to an event here in Sheffield or by joining us via web link. However you wish to attend, please register first by contacting Jayne Parkin, j.e.parkin AT sheffield.ac.uk.

If you wish to attend the seminar series in person, you can find directions to ICOSS here. If you would prefer to participate virtually, join us here at http://methodologicalchallenges.group.shef.ac.uk/ and submit your questions via Twitter, using the hashtag: #socmethods. You can also follow us at: @SocMethods

* This seminar series is funded by The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield, with additional support and guidance from NatCen Learning.
* Seminar series organiser: Dr Bridgette Wessels.

Best wishes,

Jenny Smith
Marketing Officer
Department of Politics / Department of Sociological Studies
The University of Sheffield
Elmfield, Northumberland Road
Sheffield, S10 2TU.

CfP Visual In-Sights Conference, Newcastle University, June 2014

To: EUROPEAN-SOCIOLOGIST AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Sent: Monday, 30 December 2013, 10:24
Subject: CfP Visual In-Sights Conference, Newcastle University, June 2014

Call for Papers/Proposals
Visual In-Sights: Theory, Method, Practice 26-27 June 2014
Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Deadline for Abstracts/Proposals: 31 January 2014

Keynote Speakers:
Marcus Banks (Oxford University)
David Campbell (http://www.david-campbell.org/ )
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Amber Collective)

Organised by the Visualities Research Group at Newcastle University, this interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together an international community of established and emerging scholars, creative practitioners, visual artists and arts-based, community project leaders who research, use and work with visual materials and visual methods. Contributions are invited that demonstrate the cutting edge in research and practice around the multiple spaces of the visual, and which explore the porous boundary between the theory, method and practice of the visual.

We seek academic papers and/or proposals for multi-media presentations, break-out sessions using arts/performance/installation, contemporaneous fieldwork exercises and workshops, and exhibitive displays. Contributions may speak, but are not limited, to the themes of:

• Art and Aesthetics
• Visual Cultures
• Visualities and Ethics
• Visual Communication and Visual Practice

Please submit an abstract or artist proposal of up to 250 words to visual.insights AT ncl.ac.uk
by 31 January 2014.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out on or before 28 February 2014.

Registration http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/research/groups/visualities/visual-insights/registration.htm will open on 31 March 2014. The conference fee is £80 (academics), £50 (artists), and £30 (students and unwaged)

For more information please visit:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/visual-insights/
Enquiries: visual.insights AT ncl.ac.uk

Graduate Study in Philosophy/Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford

From: Luciano Floridi - lfloridi at gmail.com

Please circulate

If you are interested in pursuing interdisciplinary graduate study at the University of Oxford in philosophy and/or ethics of information in connection with digital technologies, the Oxford Internet Institute offers:

1. The eleven-month residential MSc in Social Science of the Internet.
Students from a wide variety of backgrounds can combine their interests in philosophical/ethical issues with Internet-related courses in law, policy and other social sciences.
  2. This is for students wishing to undertake groundbreaking, detailed research.
Students are encouraged to ask original, concrete questions and to adopt incisive methodologies for exploring them, in order to help to shape the development of digital realities.
  3. The Summer Doctoral Programme.
This provides top doctoral students from around the world with the opportunity to work for a few intensive weeks with leading figures in Internet/digital research.

For more information, please check: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/graduatestudy/

For an initial expression of interest, please send a short CV (max 1500 words) and a short outline of research interests or project (max 1500 words) to:

Mrs. Penny Driscoll, BA (Hons), MA
PA to Prof Luciano Floridi
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
1 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JS
penny.driscoll8 at gmail.com

Recent Advances in Research on Housing Transitions and the Life Course - a one-day symposium

Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society Social Statistics section.
DATE: Tuesday 10 December 2013
TIME: 10am-5pm (followed by a drinks reception)
LOCATION: Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London EC1Y 8LX

We are pleased to announce a one-day symposium on recent developments in research on housing transitions through the life course.  The event will feature presentations from leading international demographers, geographers and economists on different aspects of housing careers. Topics include:

• the interrelationship between housing and fertility: childbearing patterns by housing conditions and housing changes after the birth of a child
• wage, employment and house-price effects on migration
• intergenerational transmission of home ownership and neighbourhood poverty
• residential mobility, neighbourhood poverty dynamics and neighbourhood choice among families

The symposium is sponsored by the ESRC-funded project “Interrelationships between housing transitions and fertility” (see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/research/housing for further details). 

SPEAKERS:
William A.V. Clark (University of California, Los Angeles) Clara Mulder (University of Groningen), Heather Joshi (Institute of Education) Hill Kulu (University of Liverpool) David Manley (University of Bristol) Birgitta Rabe (University of Essex) Elizabeth Washbrook (University of Bristol)

A programme and abstracts are at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/research/housing/symposium/index.html

REGISTRATION AND QUERIES: All are welcome and attendance is free.  Refreshments will be provided, including lunch and a drinks reception.  However, advance registration is essential.  Please complete the online registration form at http://www.cmm.bris.ac.uk/clients/booking/91/ to reserve your place.

[ I mentioned to the organisers about the ongoing transitions I have posted about before; that of older adults moving house (home) often in response to a bereavement to be nearer other family members. This is not the symposium's focus, but remains a question in terms of the potential impact on the individuals concerned and health and social services. pj ]

Surveys, Nursing Education, Drupal and Webform

Just before heading to Drupalcon Prague I learned of a new paper by Gill et al.:

Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research

Background: The Internet is increasingly being used as a data collection medium to access research participants. This paper reports on the experience and value of using web-survey software to conduct an eDelphi study to develop Australian critical care course graduate practice standards.
Methods: The eDelphi technique used involved the iterative process of administering three rounds of surveys to a national expert panel. The survey was developed online using SurveyMonkey. Panel members responded to statements using one rating scale for round one and two scales for rounds two and three. Text boxes for panel comments were provided.
Collecting data and providing feedback: For each round, the SurveyMonkey's email tool was used to distribute an individualized email invitation containing the survey web link. The distribution of panel responses, individual responses and a summary of comments were emailed to panel members. Stacked bar charts representing the distribution of responses were generated using the SurveyMonkey software. Panel response rates remained greater than 85% over all rounds.
(in press)

The paper is interesting in combining surveys and an e-variant of the Delphi research method. Conclusions highlight the improved accessibility to experts and how ethics needs to keep pace with technical change and affordances.

Yesterday at Drupalcon there was a presentation on Webform:

Webform 4.0: Surveys in Drupal Improved

I've mocked up a enquiry form using Webform, but this session pointed to how the module can be extended for polls and contact forms. Based on Gill et al. and the eDelphi technique they explain this could be a really powerful combination.


Gill, F.J., et al., Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research, Nurse Education Today (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.02.016

Research Design Service North West (RDS NW) September 2013 e-bulletin

A very useful resource:

Dear Colleague,

Please follow the link below to the September 2013 e-bulletin from the Research Design Service North West (RDS NW).

http://www.rds-nw.nihr.ac.uk/news-training-events/

In this issue:

• is my study research?
• NIHR showcases the clinical research that could bring hope to the nation’s dementia sufferers
• funding opportunities
• events and training
• approaching funding deadlines.

We hope you find this helpful and as always welcome any feedback.

Thanks,

RDS NW

Research Design Service North West

Central Coordinating Office

Tel: +44 (0) 1524 593209

Follow the Research Design Service on Twitter: @NIHR_RDS

Source: Thanks to RDS NW and Paul Dolby

5th Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conference 2014

Practicing mental health: Qualitative approaches to investigating services and interventions
 
Crete, Greece, 2-4 September 2014

The Qualitative Research on Mental Health conference has been established as an international transdisciplinary forum for dedicated qualitative research on a range of topics in the field of mental health, using a variety of methodologies and approaches.

The 1st and 2nd Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conferences were held in Tampere, Finland, in 2006 and 2008, and the 3rd and 4th in Nottingham, U.K., in 2010 and 2012. Previous conferences attracted strong international interest with about 150 participants from a diversity of backgrounds, including service users, health and social care professionals, social scientists and health policy makers, and created a space for lively and enriching discussions. The 5th Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conference is due to take place from the 2nd to the 4th of September near the beautiful city of Chania, in Crete, Greece.

In several qualitative research trends, mental health is approached as a set of practices; these include the professional practices implicated in defining and treating mental distress, the practices through which individuals in distress live with, make sense of and manage their experiences, as well as the wider socio-cultural and institutional practices of understanding and dealing with human suffering. This conference invites qualitative studies, from a variety of disciplines, which describe these practices, their functions and their effects, examine the discourses associated with them, and explore how these practices are viewed and experienced by the parties involved. The conference aims to promote critical engagement with mental health practices through highlighting the personal and socio-cultural processes that underpin them, as well as their intersections with gender, culture and social position.

Submissions for symposia, individual presentations and posters are welcome.

Deadline for submissions 24th January 2014
For further information, please consult the conference website:
http://www.symvoli.gr/conference/qrmh2014/page/main

<>

I will try to submit and attend (being sure to also take snorkel and flippers).

My source and with thanks: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psychiatric-nursing.html

Radical Statistics Group: Journal #107 Health & Wealth

Mis-measurement of health and wealth – Issue 107 (2012)

See also:

Straight Statistics

The UK Statistics Authority

Two recent references informing my studies: Concept maps & Threshold concepts in mental health

These two references inform my study of Hodges' model:

Zubrinic, K., Kalpic, D., Milicevic, M. (2012). The automatic creation of concept maps from documents written using morphologically rich languages. Expert Systems with Applications. 39. 12709–12718.

Stacey, G., Stickley, T. (2012). Recovery as a threshold concept in mental health nurse education. Nurse Education Today. 32, 534–539.

I will post again soon with some thoughts on the above. If you can suggest other recent resources please get in touch.


And on a personal note ALL THE BEST TO DAN, KAREN & little ANNA too. 10.11.12 a day to remember.

Gestalt, patterns and models: pressing buttons

The three recent events have all in different ways emphasized the role of patterns.

Patterns were there at the Drupal Education Camp, then the Visual Methodologies Workshop and the Scottish Ruby Conference.

There is a lot of very informative content in .net magazine. In the two most recent issues a single page has proved a great help (Buttons gestalt, .net August 2012, p.74) and in the current issue (.net Summer 2012) page 72.

Gene Crawford notes that gestalt in graphic design refers to how a person will recognise and react to an element of something we've designed. Buttons are discussed as an essential part of any design. Crawford points out how a button is the end point in submitting a form, completing an action, or transaction of some form.

A button has to fit in with an overall design - so that as an individual element it shouts out its function, its potential; whether or not that potential is realised.

In case of a medical emergency there is only one button to press: that which activates emergency procedures.

When we are concerned to deliver health and social care the button we should press is: Hodges' model. This is a compound operation. One press activates four (five) buttons: four care domains. This is the umbilicus, not just the nexus, the physical 'belly' button, but the mind, the social, political and spiritual.

For holistic, reflective and integrated care viewing h2cm as a button begs we contemplate the potential that lies beneath. Beneath in the sense of what follows after the button is activated. This is precisely Gene's focus in the summer 2012 issue of .net Mental Models on page 72.

He points to a book: Mental Models Aligning Design Strategy With Human Behaviour, which I also learned of from a lady staying in Lund at the same B&B. Here the thought processes of a visitor to a web site are central. I have some old content - archive material, but vital and still central to understanding and the history of h2cm. How are visitors to navigate their way to find original content, what mental model do they bring even before they seek out menus and buttons. What expectations will they associate with the words and vocabulary of the website: Hodges' model, conceptual framework, structure, content, and conceptual spaces?

I often think of h2cm as a care (information) architecture and Crawford notes the need for empathy with users as a website is designed. So, closer than ever these worlds: nursing and websites. ...

Visual Methodologies Workshop in Newcastle

After Oxford Drupal Education Camp this Friday-Saturday proceedings move on to a NE workshop.

If your focus is on person-centered health care then the volume of data involved that pertaining to the individual can be readily apprehended. At least the example of a single episode of care. Of course, there are exceptions, people who might be the subject of special case studies so complex is their condition and pathology. Data volumes do vary markedly from person to person. A great deal of generated data in an individual instance might be taken for granted. In the reported findings, for example, of an MRI scan that is included in a referral. When provided existing diagnoses do much to enrich the information and knowledge contained in a referral, whilst reducing possible avenues for further data gathering.

Once we move from individuals to groups and populations then the volumes involved quickly become massive. Purposes and context reflect this change in scale; codified, anonymised, aggregated the individual is lost.

Both my day-to-day work and study of Hodges' model (in nursing, informatics, literacy...) are centered on individuals. 'Caseness' in a clinical word: a referral, home visits for the day, face-to-face interaction, care concepts in assessments, plans. ... Then there is envisioning a nurse-patient (carer) interaction, or individual's episode of care through Hodges' model. As per the model's structure, however, groups and populations must also be represented. This duality of personal and data scales makes this workshop on visual methodologies of instant relevance. The two days next week cover (with my emphasis):

Introduction to working with visual methodologies: understanding epistemologies and disciplinary boundaries

• Mapping
• Story-boarding
• Artefacts

Quality in visual methods: ethics, validity and reliability
Doing visual methods: lived examples of managing data capture, synthesis, analysis and dissemination
Modes of analysis: focusing on methodological and epistemological influence on the research process

Workshop part 1: working with self-created data
Workshop part 2: creating shared analytic frameworks for self-created data
Overarching ideas and ways forward for thinking about visual methodology

Hodges' model can be readily interpreted and presented as a map and a series of story boards. The model can also support analysis, synthesis: well, this is my belief that is shared by some people.

I have completed modules on research methods, but it seems increasingly that research methods, methodologies, data structures and algorithms overlap. It may be that advances in media, technology, data gathering and improved access to data sets is having this effect. Perhaps more integrative and open attitudes (interdisciplinarity) towards quantitative and qualitative research also accounts for this blurring; or it could just be me? Whatever is the case, I'm really looking forward to the programme, meeting the facilitators and students. I am hoping this will inform my project as per the aims of the workshop:

• Consider the role of visual methods in data collection, research ethics, synthesis, analysis and dissemination;
• Explore the theoretical prospectives, epistemological traditions and latest practices that have shaped the development of visual methodologies; and
• Enable participants to translate how visual methodologies can be used to support their own research.

I'll try and post from Oxford this Friday - Saturday and from Newcastle next week. From Newcastle I'll be heading to Edinburgh for the Scottish Ruby Conference. Lots to follow as I put 10 days unpaid leave to use.

Reflections [V] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Zwarts

As per previous CS@W posts Joost Zwarts' Constructing Conceptual Spaces for Lexical Semantics provided one of several examples at the conference of data analysis derived from large datasets. The abstract included:

The similarity structure of a conceptual space can be determined using lexical data or pile sorting, but it can also be based on some sort of analysis of the values involved. Using the work of Geeraerts et al. (1994) on Dutch clothing terminology, Zwarts (2010) demonstrates how a space of “shirts” can be constructed (either using graph or MDS techniques) along such lines, with fruitful results.  

This talk outlined the way features can be identified and decomposed. Key to this are classifiers which Zwarts listed as:

1 Psychological classifiers (piles)
 From similarity judgments or sorted piles
2 Lexical classifiers   (words)
 From common lexical descriptions
3 Analytical classifiers  (features)

The presentation provided a small example based on containers, which for me was very helpful as data is a real issue for my study of Hodges' model. There are datasets out there - nursing, classification systems - and secondary data sources to consider. As mentioned above Zwarts took a dataset comprised of 38,000 possible items from the clothing domain and used 244 from the sub-domain of shirts. [Geeraerts, Grondelaers, Bakema (1994). The Structure of Lexical Variation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ]

I am probably simplifying things but discussion of Hamming distance recalled for me old Byte articles on bit-classifiers. Whether a sign of progress (maturation) or my focus, but in the 1980s there were many articles on data structures and algorithms, for some reason quad trees proved quite an attraction. There was an approach to clinical classification by Johnson (1987) that adopted a ZIP code format. As Zwarts related his presentation I wondered where a primary care problem might reside in Hodges' model: (1000, 0100, 0010, 0001)? Alternately where is the emerging problem that is nudging this individual towards possible relapse?

Graphviz was used and multidimensional scaling. The talk became more technical, understanding aided by graphical examples as classical categories were introduced: A category C is classical iff it can be defined by a particular set of feature values. The conclusion brought together the technical aspects of the data examined: convexity is too strong, connectedness somewhat too weak, but that there is a clear notion of coherence. There was much here to learn from.

Johnson, B. (1987) Health Code, The Guardian, 23 July, 16 (see also (1990) Journal of Health Care Computing).

The following page is out of date but cites Johnson:
http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/infselct.htm

(I don't want to upset searches on Google for 'conceptual spaces', so I've two more further posts this month on the conference concerning CSML and OntoSpaces.)

Here is the view from my B&B I enjoyed some lovely walks into Lund, plus using the bus. With a map that stayed in my laptop bag, I enjoyed getting lost on two occasions.

Visual Methodologies Doctoral Training Workshop 26 - 27 June 2012

Developing Theory & Practice in Visual Methodologies

The School of Education, Communication & Language Sciences and Durham University’s School of Education are holding a two-day workshop for doctoral students on the development and use of visual methodologies.

The workshop will take place on Tuesday, 26 June and Wednesday, 27 June 2012 at Newcastle University.

Further information about the workshop and how to register can be found at:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/education/postgraduate/visualmethodologies/

The workshop is part of the North East Doctoral Training Centre’s (NEDTC) annual programme of advanced training in the social sciences.

Please do not hesitate to contact Anne Parks ( NEDTC Secretary email a.l.park AT durham.ac.uk ) if you need any further information about the event.

My source:
ESA-ALL at JISCMAIL.AC.UK

How solid is the framework? Paper: Perceptual ratings of opposite spatial properties...

In researching conceptual spaces and h2cm I came across the following source:

Bianchi, I. , Savardi, U., Burro, R. (2011). Perceptual ratings of opposite spatial properties: Do they lie on the same dimension? Acta Psychologica, 138, 3, 405-418.

As constructed h2cm makes several assumptions with its axial structure. Is the placement of humanistic – mechanistic and individual – group on continua truly representative of the opposites of continua?

It seems that to address this question we must investigate cognitive linguistics. Bianchi et al., raise the following for consideration:

The idea that two contrary properties lie on the same continuum has formed the basis of various methodologies used in experimental research in the field of Psychology since the late sixties (e.g. the differential semantic method, Likert scales, etc.); however, an increasing number of methodologists are facing problems connected to the assumption of unidimensionality in opposite scales ... (p.405).

I wonder to what extent the original purposes of h2cm can support the existing continua? Nursing and the scope of nursing should also be able to substantiate the model. Nursing is person-centred. 

The idea that opposites presuppose an underlying continuum has been a default assumption in linguistics and cognitive semantics for more than two decades even though it has been noted that in every-day language people describe their perceptions in terms of opposites (“you are driving fast”, “the walk is long”, “the room is small”, “it's hot today”) instead of using unidimensional scales (respectively, velocity, size and temperature) (p.406).

Additional links:
http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/combining-h2cm-informing-science-and.html
Hodges's model

SPECIAL ISSUE cfp Qualitative Research in the Sociotechnology Domain

CALL FOR PAPERS -

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: 30th April 2012

SPECIAL ISSUE ON Qualitative Research in the Sociotechnology Domain

International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development

Guest Editor: M. Gordon Hunter

INTRODUCTION:

The goal of this special issue is provide a venue for the detailed analysis and discussion on sociotechnical philosophy and practices which underpin successful organizational change.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE:

This special issue will highlight current qualitative investigations in Sociotechnology. The main emphasis of qualitative researchers is the personnel involved in organizations. So, qualitative researchers attempt to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of their meanings attributed by individuals.  They must work closely with research participants.  Thus, those involved with the qualitative researcher are not considered subjects, but are more likely considered partners or fellow research participants, involved in the investigation of a research question.  This special issue will provide a forum to discuss the link between the aspects of social and technology from a qualitative perspective.

RECOMMENDED TOPICS:

Topics to be discussed in this special issue may include (but are not limited to) the following qualitative research methods:

• Action Research
• Case Study
• Ethnography
• Grounded Theory
• Narrative Inquiry
• Submissions involving other novel qualitative research methods employing primary and/or secondary data are also encouraged

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this special theme issue on Qualitative Research in the Sociotechnology Domain on or before [30th April 2012]. All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS SHOULD CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelines submission.pdf.  All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind, peer review basis. Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.

ABOUT International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development IJSKD:

The overall mission of the International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development (IJSKD) is to provide a practical and comprehensive forum for exchanging research ideas and down-to-earth practices which bridge the social and technical gap within organizations and society at large. At the same time it will provide a forum for considering the ethical issues linked to organizational change and development. It will encourage interdisciplinary texts that discuss current practices as well as demonstrating how the advances of - and changes within - technology affect the growth of society (and vice versa). The aim of the journal is to bring together the expertise of people who have worked practically in a changing society across the world for people in the field of organizational development and technology studies including information systems development and implementation.

This journal is an official publication of the Information Resources Management Association

www.igi-global.com/IJSKD

Editor-in-Chief: Elayne Coakes

Published: Quarterly (both in Print and Electronic form)

All submissions should be directed to the attention of:

M. Gordon Hunter

Guest Editor

International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development

E-mail: ghunter AT uleth.ca

Call for chapters - Human centric visualization: Theories, methodologies and case studies

[Shortened for length from original post to ubicomp.org]

*** CALL FOR CHAPTERS  ***
Proposal due: Feb 24, 2012
Notification due: March 09, 2012
Full chapter due: June 15, 2012

A book edited by Tony Huang (CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia), to be published by Springer: www.springer.com
Web: http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=19780%A9ownerid=14065

1. Introduction

Visualizations (diagrams) are produced for people to make sense or interact with them. Rapid advances in display technology and computer power have enabled researchers to produce visually appealing pictures or compelling visual environments to end users. However, the effectiveness of those pictures in conveying embedded information to the users and impact of visual environments on humans have not been fully understood.
This book addresses issues related to design, evaluation and application of visualizations from a human centric perspective. This cutting-edge book is an edited volume whose contributors include experts worldwide, from diverse disciplines including psychologist, artists, engineers and scientists.
Academics, students, engineers and consultants will find this book useful for both research and engineering purposes.

2. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Part I: Introduction and overview

Current status and future challenges of visualization methods
Current status and future challenges of human centric visualizations research
Survey of evaluation methods in visualization
Survey of theories, frameworks, models, heuristics and design principles for visualization

Part II: Theories, models, frameworks, heuristics and design principles for human centric visualization

Theories of visual thinking, diagram perception, cognition and reasoning and their applications
Latest developments toward theories of visualization
Latest development of frameworks, models, heuristics and design principles for visualization
Applications of the theories, frameworks, models, heuristics and design principles
Adaptations and applications of theories from other domains in visualization

Part III: Methodologies for design, development and evaluation of human centric visualization

Approaches and practices of visualization design
Evaluation methods
Measurement metrics
Taxonomies of tasks
Design and evaluation frameworks
Development and validation of methodologies
Application of methodologies
Lessons learned and experience obtained in developing and applying methodologies

Part IV: Case studies of human centric visualization

Human factors (e.g., memory, cognitive ability, gender, individual differences)
Visual perception and cognition
Visual analytics
Social, cultural aspects of visualization
Implications of new technologies (e.g., displays, new media) on humans
User experience
Implications of interactive methods on humans
Implications of new visualizations on humans
Roles of human in collaborative visualization
Use of visualizations for decision making, learning, business, software engineering, science, security, biology, design, construction, cartography, etc.
Visualization in virtual reality/mixed reality/augmented reality
Case studies and evaluations of interfaces, systems and prototypes of visualizations
Lessons learned and experience obtained in evaluating and designing visualizations
....

4. Important dates

Proposal due:  February 24, 2012  (Proposal has no length limits, usually should include motivations, method, contributions and a brief outline of the full chapter)
Notification: March 09, 2012
Full chapter due: June 15, 2012
Full manuscript due to publisher: August 1, 2012
Book publication: October 1, 2012

5. Contact

All submissions and inquiries should be sent to:
Tony Huang
CSIRO ICT Center, Australia
Email: whua5569 AT gmail.com