How to Manage, Analyze, and Interpret Survey Data

'A useful and readable introduction to data analysis and valuable resource for the nonspecialist' - Cameron Lee, Fuller Theological Seminary. 'Clearly written with useful checklists, guidelines, and examples, "How to Manage, Analyze, and Interpret Survey Data" shows readers how to manage survey data and become better users and consumers of statistical and qualitative survey information. Fink explains the basic vocabulary of data management and statistics, and then demonstrates the principles and logic behind the selection and interpretation of commonly used statistical and qualitative methods to analyze survey data: from cleaning the data to measurement scales through to how to read computer output and judge significance using confidence intervals.Thoroughly reorganized and revised, the book now includes coverage of: how to organize and manage data for analysis; how to draft an analysis plan; how to define and format a data file; how to create a complete code book, including how to establish the reliability of the coding; how to calculate the odds ratio and risk ratio; how to do the basic steps in a content analysis of qualitative data; how to recognize and deal with missing data and outliers for recoding; and, how to enter data accurately into spreadsheets, database management programs, and statistical programs. 'The author provides an excellent introductory overview to selecting appropriate statistical tests - the purposes and prerequisites for using various statistical methods' - Kathy Sexton-Radek, Elmhurst College.