What’s new in books

“Regression & Linear Modeling: Best Practices and Modern Methods”
By Jason W. Osborne
Published in April 2016 by Sage Publishing ($86.00 hardback; e-books also available)

In a conversational tone, “Regression & Linear Modeling” provides conceptual, user-friendly coverage of the generalized linear model. Readers will become familiar with applications of ordinary least squares regression, binary and multinomial logistic regression, ordinal regression, poisson regression and log linear models. The author returns to certain themes throughout the text, such as testing assumptions, examining data quality and, where appropriate, nonlinear and non-additive effects modeled within different types of linear models. 

“Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches”
By R. Burke Johnson and Larry Christensen
Published in October 2016 by Sage Publishing ($136.00 hardback; $102.00 loose-leaf)

This work assumes no prior knowledge, and offers a comprehensive, easily digestible introductory research methods textbook for both undergraduate and graduate students. Students will develop an understanding of the multiple research methods and strategies used in education and related fields. They will learn how to read and critically evaluate published research, as well as developing the ability to write a proposal, construct a questionnaire and conduct an empirical research study on their own. 

“Multivariate Statistical Methods: A Primer, Fourth Edition”
By Bryan F.J. Manly and Jorge A. Navarro Alberto
Published in October 2016 by CRC Press ($59.95 paperback)

Without getting too deep into the mathematical details, this text provides an introductory overview of multivariate methods. The fourth edition is a revised and updated version of this bestselling introductory textbook. It retains the clear and concise style of the previous editions of the book and focuses on examples from biological and environmental sciences. The major update with this edition is that R code has been included for each of the analyses described, although in practice any standard statistical package can be used. 

“Applied Qualitative Research Design: A Total Quality Framework Approach”
By Margaret R. Roller and Paul J. Lavrakas
Published by Guilford Press ($110.00 hardback; $55.00 paperback; e-books also available)

This unique text provides a comprehensive framework for creating, managing and interpreting qualitative research studies. Examples of studies from a wide range of disciplines illustrate the strengths, limitations and applications of in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, ethnography, content analysis, and case study and narrative research. Unlike other texts that relegate quality issues to one or two chapters, detailed discussions of such crucial topics as construct validity, inter-researcher reliability, researcher bias and verification strategies are featured throughout. 

Guidelines for the “What’s New?” Column
Have you published a new psychological test or testing product; a book on advanced statistics, measurement, or evaluation; an interesting website or other Internet group related to measurement, statistics or evaluation; or a computer program useful to Div. 5 membership? If so, we would like to include an announcement of about 100 words in the What’s New column. We would also appreciate any suggestions, or feedback, on how this section of the newsletter can better serve the Div. 5 membership. Please take the opportunity to share information with colleagues through your contributions to this column. 

Please send announcements and/or product literature to The Score Editor Sara Rzepa.