
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
Associate Editor at the Journal of Criminal Justice and Law
Richard J. Stringer, Ph.D.
Three Sections
1. Data
2. Measures
3. Data Analysis
The methods section should be organized into three basic sections. These are Data, Measures, and Data Analysis. If you are writing a Master's Thesis, I strongly recommend the use of secondary data over collecting your own data. I have provided some links below to good sources of secondary data that you may find useful.
-
Data
-
Where is your data coming from?
-
Will you collect your own? If so, how? What are the sampling methods?
-
Is it secondary data?
-
If so what is this survey?
-
How is it collected?
-
Who collects it and why?
-
-
Provide any other pertinent information that you think is necessary.
-
-
Measures/Variables in the Study
-
What is your dependent variable?
-
What is your independent variable?
-
What are your control variables?
-
How are they operationalized/coded?
-
Is there is any missing data (If so, how much)?
-
-
Data Analysis
-
What statistical program are you using? (e.g. SPSS)
-
What statistical analysis are you using and why? (Correlation Matrix or Cross-Tabulations, Linear or Logistic Regression, etc.)
-
Methods and Statistics Resources
SAGE Research Methods Resources
Data Sources
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)
Statistical Resources
UCLA Statistical Methods and Data Analytics
Paul Allison - Statistical Horizons