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The meaning of this term | has evolved. has varied over time. has been extended to refer to … has been broadened in recent years. has not been consistent throughout … has changed somewhat from its original definition … |
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X is defined by Smith (2003: 119) as ‘… …’ The term ‘X’ is used by Smith (2001) to refer to … X is, for Smith (2012), the situation which occurs when … A further definition of X is given by Smith (1982) who describes … The term ‘X’ is used by Aristotle in four overlapping senses. First, it is the underlying … X is the degree to which an assessment process or device measures … (Smith et al ., 1986).
This definition | includes … allows for … highlights the … helps distinguish … takes into account … poses a problem for … will continue to evolve. can vary depending on … was agreed upon after … has been broadened to include … |
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Introduction to Research Methods
Many terms and concepts are associated with research methods, particularly as it relates to the research planning decisions you must make along the way. Throughout this textbook, you will be exposed to many of these terms and concepts. Figure 1.1 is a general chart that will help you contextualize many of these terms and also understand the research process. As you can see, Figure 1.1 begins with two key concepts: ontology and epistemology, advances through other concepts and concludes with three research methodological approaches: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.
However, it is important to note that research does not end with making decisions about the type of methods you will use. In fact, we could argue that the work is just beginning at this point. As such, Figure 1.1 does not represent an all-encompassing list of concepts and terms related to research methods. Keep in mind that each strategy has its own data collection and analysis approaches, which are associated with the various methodological approaches you choose. Figure 1.1 is meant to provide a general overview of the lay of the research land. You may want to keep this figure handy as you read through the various chapters.
Thinking about what you know and how you know what you know involves questions of ontology and epistemology. Perhaps you have heard these concepts before in a philosophy class? These concepts are relevant to the work of sociologists as well. As sociologists (those who undertake socially-focused research), we want to understand some aspect of our social world. Usually, we are not starting with zero knowledge. In fact, we usually start with some understanding of: 1) what is; 2) what can be known about what is; and, 3) what the best mechanism happens to be for learning about what is (Schmitz, 2012). In the following sections, we will define these terms and provide an example of ontology and epistemology
Ontology is a Greek word that means the study, theory, or science of being. Ontology is concerned with the what is or the nature of reality (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). It can involve some very large and difficult to answer questions, such as: What is the purpose of life? What, if anything, exists beyond our universe? Ontology also asks: What categories does it belong to? Is there such a thing as objective reality? What does the verb “to be” mean?
Ontology is comprised of two aspects: objectivism and subjectivism. Objectivism means that social entities exist externally to the social actors who are concerned with their existence. Subjectivism means that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and actions of the social actors who are concerned with their existence (Saunders, et al., 2009). Figure 1.2 provides an example of a similar research project to be undertaken by two different students. While the projects being proposed by the students are similar, they each have different research questions. Read the scenario and then answer the questions that follow.
Subjectivist and objectivist approaches (adapted from Saunders et al., 2009)
Ana is an Emergency & Security Management Studies (ESMS) student at a local college. She is just beginning her capstone research project and she plans to do research at the City of Vancouver. Her research question is as follows: What is the role of City of Vancouver managers, working in the emergency management department, in enabling positive community relationships? She will be collecting data related to the roles and duties of managers in enabling positive community relationships.
Robert is also an ESMS student at the same college. He too will be undertaking his research at the City of Vancouver. His research question is as follows: What is the effect of the City of Vancouver’s corporate culture in enabling managers, working in the emergency management department, to develop a positive relationship with the local community? He will be collecting data related to perceptions of corporate culture and its effect on enabling positive community-emergency management department relationships.
Before the students begin collecting data, they learn that six months ago, the long-time emergency department manager and assistance manager both retired. They have been replaced by two senior staff managers who have Bachelor’s degrees in Emergency Services Management. These new managers are considered more up-to-date and knowledgeable on emergency services management, give their specialized academic training and practical on-the-job work experience in this department. The new managers have, essentially, the same job duties and operate under the same procedures as the managers they replaced. When Ana and Robert approach the managers to ask them to participate in their separate studies, the new managers state that they are just new on the job and probably cannot answer the research questions and they decline to participate. Ana and Robert are worried that they will need to start all over again with a new research project. They return to their supervisors to get their opinions on what they should do.
Before reading about their supervisors’ responses, answer the following questions:
Ana’s supervisor tells her that her research question set up for an objectivist approach. Her supervisor tells her that in her study the social entity (the City) exists in reality external to the social actors (the managers). In other words, there is a formal management structure at the City that has largely remained unchanged since the old managers left and the new ones started. The procedures remain the same regardless of whoever occupies those positions. As such, Ana using an objectivist approach, could state that the new managers have job descriptions which describe their duties and that they are a part of a formal structure with a hierarchy of people reporting to them and to whom they report to. She could further state that this hierarchy, which unique to this organization, also resembles hierarchies found in other similar organizations. As such, she can argue that the new managers will be able to speak about the role they play in enabling positive community relationships. Their answers are likely to be no different than the old managers, because the management structure and the procedures remain the same. Therefore, she can go back to the new managers and ask them to participate in her research study.
Robert’s supervisor tells him that his research sets up for a subjectivist approach because in his study the social phenomena (the effect of corporate culture on the relationship with the community) is created from the perceptions and consequent actions of the social actors (the managers). In other words, there is a continual process of social interaction, that is influenced by the corporate culture at the City, and it is these interactions that influence perceptions of the relationship with the community. The relationship is in a constant state of revision. As such, Robert, using a subjectivist approach, could state that the new managers may have had few interactions with the community members to date and therefore may not be fully cognizant of how the corporate culture affects the department’s relationship with the community. While it will be important to get the new mangers’ perceptions, he will also need to speak with the precious managers to get their perceptions from the time they were employed in their positions. This is because the community-department relationship is in a state of constant revision, which is influenced by the various managers perceptions of the corporate culture and its effect on their ability to form positive community relationships. Therefore, he can go back to the current managers and ask them to participate in his study and also ask that the department please contact the previous managers to see if they would be willing to participate in his study.
As you can see from the previous examples, it is the research question of each study that served to guide the decision as to whether the researcher should take a subjective or an objective ontological approach. This decision, in turn, guided their approach to the research study, including to whom they should interview in order to answer their respective interview questions. We will be speaking a lot more about research questions in the upcoming chapters.
Epistemology has to do with knowledge. Rather than dealing with questions about what is , epistemology deals with questions of how we know what is. In sociology, there are many ways to uncover knowledge. We might interview people to understand public opinion about some topic, or perhaps we’ll observe them in their natural environment. We could avoid face-to-face interaction altogether by mailing people surveys for them to complete on their own or by reading what people have to say about their opinions in newspaper editorials. These methods are all ways that sociologists gain knowledge. Each method of data collection comes with its own set of epistemological assumptions about how to find things out (Schmitz, 2012). There are two main subsections of epistemology: positivist and interpretivist philosophies. We will examine these philosophies or paradigms in the following sections.
Figure 1.1 long description: The research process.
[Return to Figure 1.1]
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A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation , it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader.
Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and it’s intended to enhance their understanding of your work. Glossaries are not mandatory, but if you use a lot of technical or field-specific terms, it may improve readability to add one.
If you do choose to include a glossary, it should go at the beginning of your document, just after the table of contents and (if applicable) list of tables and figures or list of abbreviations . It’s helpful to place your glossary at the beginning, so your readers can familiarize themselves with key terms relevant to your thesis or dissertation topic prior to reading your work. Remember that glossaries are always in alphabetical order.
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Glossaries and definitions often fall into the category of common knowledge , meaning that they don’t necessarily have to be cited.
However, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to citing your sources , in order to avoid accidental plagiarism .
If you’d prefer to cite just in case, you can follow guidance for citing dictionary entries in MLA or APA Style for citations in your glossary. Remember that direct quotes should always be accompanied by a citation.
In addition to the glossary, you can also include a list of tables and figures and a list of abbreviations in your thesis or dissertation if you choose.
Include your lists in the following order:
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A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, dictionaries are more general collections of words.
A glossary or “glossary of terms” is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and is intended to enhance their understanding of your work.
Glossaries are not mandatory, but if you use a lot of technical or field-specific terms, it may improve readability to add one to your thesis or dissertation. Your educational institution may also require them, so be sure to check their specific guidelines.
A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, an index is a list of the contents of your work organized by page number.
Definitional terms often fall into the category of common knowledge , meaning that they don’t necessarily have to be cited. This guidance can apply to your thesis or dissertation glossary as well.
However, if you’d prefer to cite your sources , you can follow guidance for citing dictionary entries in MLA or APA style for your glossary.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
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What do you even search for once you've got your topic and research question solidified, or at least started? Well, you take the most important words in your research statement/question and use them as key terms. Use those key terms in conjunction with each other (see the section on "Combining Key Terms" for advice about how to do so). Also, use synonyms of your key terms.
Research question:.
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Last updated 22 Mar 2021
This key term glossary provides brief definitions for the core terms and concepts covered in Research Methods for A Level Psychology.
Don't forget to also make full use of our research methods study notes and revision quizzes to support your studies and exam revision.
The researcher’s area of interest – what they are looking at (e.g. to investigate helping behaviour).
A graph that shows the data in the form of categories (e.g. behaviours observed) that the researcher wishes to compare.
Behavioural categories
Key behaviours or, collections of behaviour, that the researcher conducting the observation will pay attention to and record
In-depth investigation of a single person, group or event, where data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g. observations & interviews).
Closed questions
Questions where there are fixed choices of responses e.g. yes/no. They generate quantitative data
Co-variables
The variables investigated in a correlation
Concurrent validity
Comparing a new test with another test of the same thing to see if they produce similar results. If they do then the new test has concurrent validity
Confidentiality
Unless agreed beforehand, participants have the right to expect that all data collected during a research study will remain confidential and anonymous.
Confounding variable
An extraneous variable that varies systematically with the IV so we cannot be sure of the true source of the change to the DV
Content analysis
Technique used to analyse qualitative data which involves coding the written data into categories – converting qualitative data into quantitative data.
Control group
A group that is treated normally and gives us a measure of how people behave when they are not exposed to the experimental treatment (e.g. allowed to sleep normally).
Controlled observation
An observation study where the researchers control some variables - often takes place in laboratory setting
Correlational analysis
A mathematical technique where the researcher looks to see whether scores for two covariables are related
Counterbalancing
A way of trying to control for order effects in a repeated measures design, e.g. half the participants do condition A followed by B and the other half do B followed by A
Covert observation
Also known as an undisclosed observation as the participants do not know their behaviour is being observed
Critical value
The value that a test statistic must reach in order for the hypothesis to be accepted.
After completing the research, the true aim is revealed to the participant. Aim of debriefing = to return the person to the state s/he was in before they took part.
Involves misleading participants about the purpose of s study.
Demand characteristics
Occur when participants try to make sense of the research situation they are in and try to guess the purpose of the research or try to present themselves in a good way.
Dependent variable
The variable that is measured to tell you the outcome.
Descriptive statistics
Analysis of data that helps describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way
Directional hypothesis
A one-tailed hypothesis that states the direction of the difference or relationship (e.g. boys are more helpful than girls).
Dispersion measure
A dispersion measure shows how a set of data is spread out, examples are the range and the standard deviation
Double blind control
Participants are not told the true purpose of the research and the experimenter is also blind to at least some aspects of the research design.
Ecological validity
The extent to which the findings of a research study are able to be generalized to real-life settings
Ethical guidelines
These are provided by the BPS - they are the ‘rules’ by which all psychologists should operate, including those carrying out research.
Ethical issues
There are 3 main ethical issues that occur in psychological research – deception, lack of informed consent and lack of protection of participants.
Evaluation apprehension
Participants’ behaviour is distorted as they fear being judged by observers
Event sampling
A target behaviour is identified and the observer records it every time it occurs
Experimental group
The group that received the experimental treatment (e.g. sleep deprivation)
External validity
Whether it is possible to generalise the results beyond the experimental setting.
Extraneous variable
Variables that if not controlled may affect the DV and provide a false impression than an IV has produced changes when it hasn’t.
Face validity
Simple way of assessing whether a test measures what it claims to measure which is concerned with face value – e.g. does an IQ test look like it tests intelligence.
Field experiment
An experiment that takes place in a natural setting where the experimenter manipulates the IV and measures the DV
A graph that is used for continuous data (e.g. test scores). There should be no space between the bars, because the data is continuous.
This is a formal statement or prediction of what the researcher expects to find. It needs to be testable.
Independent groups design
An experimental design where each participants only takes part in one condition of the IV
Independent variable
The variable that the experimenter manipulates (changes).
Inferential statistics
Inferential statistics are ways of analyzing data using statistical tests that allow the researcher to make conclusions about whether a hypothesis was supported by the results.
Informed consent
Psychologists should ensure that all participants are helped to understand fully all aspects of the research before they agree (give consent) to take part
Inter-observer reliability
The extent to which two or more observers are observing and recording behaviour in the same way
Internal validity
In relation to experiments, whether the results were due to the manipulation of the IV rather than other factors such as extraneous variables or demand characteristics.
Interval level data
Data measured in fixed units with equal distance between points on the scale
Investigator effects
These result from the effects of a researcher’s behaviour and characteristics on an investigation.
Laboratory experiment
An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment where the experimenter manipulates the IV and measures the DV
Matched pairs design
An experimental design where pairs of participants are matched on important characteristics and one member allocated to each condition of the IV
Measure of central tendency calculated by adding all the scores in a set of data together and dividing by the total number of scores
Measures of central tendency
A measurement of data that indicates where the middle of the information lies e.g. mean, median or mode
Measure of central tendency calculated by arranging scores in a set of data from lowest to highest and finding the middle score
Meta-analysis
A technique where rather than conducting new research with participants, the researchers examine the results of several studies that have already been conducted
Measure of central tendency which is the most frequently occurring score in a set of data
Natural experiment
An experiment where the change in the IV already exists rather than being manipulated by the experimenter
Naturalistic observation
An observation study conducted in the environment where the behaviour would normally occur
Negative correlation
A relationship exists between two covariables where as one increases, the other decreases
Nominal level data
Frequency count data that consists of the number of participants falling into categories. (e.g. 7 people passed their driving test first time, 6 didn’t).
Non-directional hypothesis
A two-tailed hypothesis that does not predict the direction of the difference or relationship (e.g. girls and boys are different in terms of helpfulness).
Normal distribution
An arrangement of a data that is symmetrical and forms a bell shaped pattern where the mean, median and mode all fall in the centre at the highest peak
Observed value
The value that you have obtained from conducting your statistical test
Observer bias
Occurs when the observers know the aims of the study study or the hypotheses and allow this knowledge to influence their observations
Open questions
Questions where there is no fixed response and participants can give any answer they like. They generate qualitative data.
Operationalising variables
This means clearly describing the variables (IV and DV) in terms of how they will be manipulated (IV) or measured (DV).
Opportunity sample
A sampling technique where participants are chosen because they are easily available
Order effects
Order effects can occur in a repeated measures design and refers to how the positioning of tasks influences the outcome e.g. practice effect or boredom effect on second task
Ordinal level data
Data that is capable of being out into rank order (e.g. places in a beauty contest, or ratings for attractiveness).
Overt observation
Also known as a disclosed observation as the participants given their permission for their behaviour to be observed
Participant observation
Observation study where the researcher actually joins the group or takes part in the situation they are observing.
Peer review
Before going to publication, a research report is sent other psychologists who are knowledgeable in the research topic for them to review the study, and check for any problems
Pilot study
A small scale study conducted to ensure the method will work according to plan. If it doesn’t then amendments can be made.
Positive correlation
A relationship exists between two covariables where as one increases, so does the other
Presumptive consent
Asking a group of people from the same target population as the sample whether they would agree to take part in such a study, if yes then presume the sample would
Primary data
Information that the researcher has collected him/herself for a specific purpose e.g. data from an experiment or observation
Prior general consent
Before participants are recruited they are asked whether they are prepared to take part in research where they might be deceived about the true purpose
Probability
How likely something is to happen – can be expressed as a number (0.5) or a percentage (50% change of tossing coin and getting a head)
Protection of participants
Participants should be protected from physical or mental health, including stress - risk of harm must be no greater than that to which they are exposed in everyday life
Qualitative data
Descriptive information that is expressed in words
Quantitative data
Information that can be measured and written down with numbers.
Quasi experiment
An experiment often conducted in controlled conditions where the IV simply exists so there can be no random allocation to the conditions
Questionnaire
A set of written questions that participants fill in themselves
Random sampling
A sampling technique where everyone in the target population has an equal chance of being selected
Randomisation
Refers to the practice of using chance methods (e.g. flipping a coin' to allocate participants to the conditions of an investigation
The distance between the lowest and the highest value in a set of scores.
A measure of dispersion which involves subtracting the lowest score from the highest score in a set of data
Reliability
Whether something is consistent. In the case of a study, whether it is replicable.
Repeated measures design
An experimental design where each participants takes part in both/all conditions of the IV
Representative sample
A sample that that closely matched the target population as a whole in terms of key variables and characteristics
Retrospective consent
Once the true nature of the research has been revealed, participants should be given the right to withdraw their data if they are not happy.
Right to withdraw
Participants should be aware that they can leave the study at any time, even if they have been paid to take part.
A group of people that are drawn from the target population to take part in a research investigation
Scattergram
Used to plot correlations where each pair of values is plotted against each other to see if there is a relationship between them.
Secondary data
Information that someone else has collected e.g. the work of other psychologists or government statistics
Semi-structured interview
Interview that has some pre-determined questions, but the interviewer can develop others in response to answers given by the participant
A statistical test used to analyse the direction of differences of scores between the same or matched pairs of subjects under two experimental conditions
Significance
If the result of a statistical test is significant it is highly unlikely to have occurred by chance
Single-blind control
Participants are not told the true purpose of the research
Skewed distribution
An arrangement of data that is not symmetrical as data is clustered ro one end of the distribution
Social desirability bias
Participants’ behaviour is distorted as they modify this in order to be seen in a positive light.
Standard deviation
A measure of the average spread of scores around the mean. The greater the standard deviation the more spread out the scores are. .
Standardised instructions
The instructions given to each participant are kept identical – to help prevent experimenter bias.
Standardised procedures
In every step of the research all the participants are treated in exactly the same way and so all have the same experience.
Stratified sample
A sampling technique where groups of participants are selected in proportion to their frequency in the target population
Structured interview
Interview where the questions are fixed and the interviewer reads them out and records the responses
Structured observation
An observation study using predetermined coding scheme to record the participants' behaviour
Systematic sample
A sampling technique where every nth person in a list of the target population is selected
Target population
The group that the researchers draws the sample from and wants to be able to generalise the findings to
Temporal validity
Refers to how likely it is that the time period when a study was conducted has influenced the findings and whether they can be generalised to other periods in time
Test-retest reliability
Involves presenting the same participants with the same test or questionnaire on two separate occasions and seeing whether there is a positive correlation between the two
Thematic analysis
A method for analysing qualitative data which involves identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within the data
Time sampling
A way of sampling the behaviour that is being observed by recording what happens in a series of fixed time intervals.
Type 1 error
Is a false positive. It is where you accept the alternative/experimental hypothesis when it is false
Type 2 error
Is a false negative. It is where you accept the null hypothesis when it is false
Unstructured interview
Also know as a clinical interview, there are no fixed questions just general aims and it is more like a conversation
Unstructured observation
Observation where there is no checklist so every behaviour seen is written down in an much detail as possible
Whether something is true – measures what it sets out to measure.
Volunteer sample
A sampling technique where participants put themselves forward to take part in research, often by answering an advertisement
Explanations for conformity, cultural variations in attachment, emergence of psychology as a science: the laboratory experiment, scoville and milner (1957), kohlberg (1968), schizophrenia: what is schizophrenia, biopsychology: the pns – somatic and autonomic nervous systems, relationships: duck's phase model of relationship breakdown, our subjects.
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Last Updated on January 9, 2019 by Karl Thompson
Definitions of core concepts covered as part of the research methods component of AS and A Level Sociology. Organised in alphabetical order – so effectively this is a research methods A-Z. If this is too much for you, then have a look at my ‘ top ten research methods concepts ‘ first!
For more information about research methods in general please see my main page of links to posts on research methods in sociology !
Anthropology – the study of humans, past and present. Historically, anthropologists mostly studied traditional (e.g. tribal) cultures using participant observation as its main method, however, more recently anthropologists have increasingly focused much a greater array of aspects of culture within modern and post-modern societies using a more diverse range of methods. One of the key aims of anthropology is to explore and explain the enormous diversity as well as the commonalities within and between human cultures.
Attrition r ate – the percentage of respondents who drop out of a research study during the course of that study. This can often be a problem with longitudinal research.
Bias – where someone’s personal, subjective feelings or thoughts affect one’s judgement.
Case study – researching a single case or example of something using multiple methods, for example researching one school or factor
Closed Questions – Questions which have a limited range of answers attached to them – such as Yes/ No or Likerhert Scale answers.
Dependent and independent variables – a dependent variable is the object under study in an experiment, the independent variables are what the researcher varies to see how they effect the dependent variable.
Ethics/ ethical factors – ethics means taking into consideration how the research impacts on those involved with the research process. Ethical research should gain informed consent, ensure confidentiality, be legal and ensure that respondents and those related to them are not subjected to harm. Ultimately research should aim to do more good than harm to society.
Field d iary – A notebook in which a researcher records observation during the research process. One of the key tools of Participant Observation.
Formal content analysis – a quantitative approach to analysing mass media content which involves developing a system of classification to analyse the key features of media sources and then simply counting how many times these features occur in a given text.
Hawthorne e ffect – where respondents alter their behaviour because they know they are being observed. This is one of the biggest disadvantages of overt laboratory and field experiments.
Independent variable – see dependent variable.
Interviews – a method of gathering information by asking questions orally, either face to face or by telephone. Interviews can be individual or group and there are three main types of interview – structured, unstructured and semi-structured.
The more structured the interview, the more rigid the interview schedule will be. Before conducting an interview it is usual for the researcher to know something about the topic area and the respondents themselves, and so they will have at least some idea of the questions they are likely to ask: even if they are doing ‘unstructured interviews’ an interviewer will have some kind of interview schedule, even if it is just a list of broad topic areas to discuss, or an opening question.
Life documents – written or audio-visual sources created by individuals which record details of that person’s experiences and social actions. They are predominantly qualitative and may offer insights into people’s subjective states. They can be historical or contemporary and can take a wide variety of forms.
Multistage sampling – w ith multistage sampling, a researcher selects a sample by using combinations of different sampling methods. For example, in Stage one , a researcher might use systematic sampling, and in Stage two , he might use random sampling to select a subset for the final sample.
Objective knowledge – knowledge which is free of the biases, opinions and values of the researcher, it reflects what is really ‘out there’ in the social world.
Open-ended question – questions for which there are no set answers. Open questions allow individuals to write their own answers or dictate them to interviewers. For example ‘have you enjoyed studying Sociology this year?’
Overt research – see covert research.
Personal documents – first-hand accounts of social events and personal experiences, which generally include the writer’s feelings and attitudes about the events they think are personally significant. Examples of personal documents are letters, diaries, photo albums and autobiographies.
Practical factors – include such things as the amount of time the research will take, how much it will cost, whether you can achieve funding, opportunities for research including ease of access to respondents, and the personal skills and characteristics of the researcher.
Public documents – are produced by organisations such as government departments and their agencies as well as businesses and charities and include OFSTED and other official government enquiries. These reports are a matter of public record and should be available for anyone who wishes to see them.
Quota sampling – In this method researchers will be told to ensure the sample fits with certain quotas, for example they might be told to find 90 participants, with 30 of them being unemployed. The researcher might then find these 30 by going to a job centre. The problem of representativeness is again a problem with the quota sampling method.
Reliability – i f research is reliable, it means if someone else repeats the same research with the same population then they should achieve the same results.
R epresentative ness thus depends on who is being studied. If one’s research aim is to look at the experiences of all white male AS Sociology students studying sociology, then one’s sample should consist of all white, male sociology students. If one wishes to study sociology students in general, one will need to have a proportionate amount of AS/ A2 students as well as a range of genders and ethnicities in order to reflect the wider student body.
S ampling f rame – a list from which a sample will be drawn.
Semi- s tructured interviews – those in which res earchers have a pre-determined list of questions to ask respondents , but are free to ask further, differentiated questions based on the responses given.
Social surveys are written in advance by the researcher and tend to to be pre-coded and have a limited number of closed-questions and they tend to focus on relatively simple topics. A good example is the UK National Census. Social surveys can be administered (carried out) in a number of different ways – they might be self-completion (completed by the respondents themselves) or they might take the form of a structured interview on the high street, as is the case with some market research.
Structured or formal interviews – those in which the interviewer asks the interviewee the same questions in the same way to different respondents. This will typically involve reading out questions from a pre-written and pre-coded structured questionnaire.
Target p opulation – all people who could potentially be studied as part of the research.
Thematic a nalysis – involves trying to understand the intentions which lie behind the production of mass media documents by subjecting a particular area of reportage to detailed investigation.
Transcription – the process of writing down (or typing up) what respondents say in an interview. In order to be able to transcribe effectively interviews will need to be recorded.
Validity – r esearch is valid if it provides a true picture of what is really ‘out there’ in the world.
Verstehen – a German word meaning to ‘understand in a deep way’ – in order to achieve ‘Verstehen’ a researcher aims to understand another person’s experience by putting themselves in the other person’s shoes.
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Meta: Journal des traducteurs
Phaedra Royle
Rahmadi Nirwanto
The study is intended to describe the methods of defining terms found in the theses of the English Foreign Language (EFL) students of IAIN Palangka Raya. The method to be used is a mixed method, qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative approach was used to identify, describe the frequencies, and classify the methods of defining terms. In interpreting and explaining the types of method to be used, the writer used qualitative approach. In qualitative approach, data were described in the form of words and explanation. The findings show that there were two methods of defining terms, dictionary approach and athoritative reference.
Terminology
Blaise Nkwenti
Sead Spuzic
Eurasia Review
Mohamed Chtatou
Terminology is the field of lexicology (or the study of lexicon) that deals with specialized vocabularies and sets of terms related to particular fields (aviation terminology, medical terminology, stylistics, agriculture, etc.). Terminology as a new academic field is located at the boundary among linguistics, logic, theory of existence, information science and specialized areas of science and technology, and in the interdisciplinary area.
Erikas Kupciunas
During the past several decades, the theory of terminology has been a subject of debates in various circles. The views on terminology as a scientific discipline vary considerably. Currently, there are a number of treatments of this field and a number of debatable questions involved. Is terminology a science, or just a practice? does terminology have a status of separate scholarly discipline with its own theory or does it owe its theoretical assumptions to more consolidated disciplines?
Tomasz Michta
Chapter 1.1 of my book A Model for an English-Polish Systematic Dictionary of Chemical Terminology
Alia Channel
Claudia Dobrina
Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams
Terry Schmidt
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Maksym Vakulenko
Taras Shiyan
Fernando Deviente Jr.
Kisyani Laksono , Kisyani-Laksono Sekisman
Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN 2018)
asep nurjamin
ELETO (Hellenic Society for Terminology)
Kostas Valeontis
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Data Point: A data point is one particular number or item from a data set.
Data Set: A data set is simply a group of numbers. In formal mathematics, data sets are distinguished from each other by using brackets. A more formal mathematical definition allows a data set to contain other things besides numbers (such as letters, items, or even concepts and ideas). The following data set contains only the numbers 2, 5, and 7.
Distribution: A distribution is simply how the data points are clustered. Are they spread apart evenly, or do most of them cluster in the middle and fall off towards the edge like a bell-shaped curve? Two data sets may have the same mean or median, but having different distributions gives them radically different properties.
Mean: The mean (or arithmetic mean) is what most people are referring to when the say average. It is simply the total sum of all the numbers in a data set, divided by the number of different data points.
Median: The middle data point in a data set.
Mode: The most common data point in a data set. This is the value that occurs with greatest frequency.
Population: A population is all of the members contained within a group. In statistics, the population is the group you want your results to generalize about. For example, if you are studying a particular species of fish. such as a Yellow Fin Tuna, then your population is all Yellow Fin Tuna. Your population would not be all fish, nor would your population be all the different species of tuna.
Sample: A sample is all of the units or members that you have studied, drawn from a larger population. In our tuna example, researchers may have found 50 particular yellow fin tuna to study. The sample therefore would consist of 50 yellow fin tuna. As a researcher, you hope that your sample is as representative of your population as possible. The closer the sample represents the population, the stronger and more accurate an inference drawn from the sample will be. This is why you want a large sample to study from.
T-test: A t-test is a common statistical test used to compare two groups, typically two groups' means (the difference of two means divided by a measure of variability). A t-test takes into account the number of units in the sample.
Discover the world's research
Here's a look at the foundation of doing science — the scientific method.
Hypothesis, theory and law, a brief history of science, additional resources, bibliography.
Science is a systematic and logical approach to discovering how things in the universe work. It is also the body of knowledge accumulated through the discoveries about all the things in the universe.
The word "science" is derived from the Latin word "scientia," which means knowledge based on demonstrable and reproducible data, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary . True to this definition, science aims for measurable results through testing and analysis, a process known as the scientific method. Science is based on fact, not opinion or preferences. The process of science is designed to challenge ideas through research. One important aspect of the scientific process is that it focuses only on the natural world, according to the University of California, Berkeley . Anything that is considered supernatural, or beyond physical reality, does not fit into the definition of science.
When conducting research, scientists use the scientific method to collect measurable, empirical evidence in an experiment related to a hypothesis (often in the form of an if/then statement) that is designed to support or contradict a scientific theory .
"As a field biologist, my favorite part of the scientific method is being in the field collecting the data," Jaime Tanner, a professor of biology at Marlboro College, told Live Science. "But what really makes that fun is knowing that you are trying to answer an interesting question. So the first step in identifying questions and generating possible answers (hypotheses) is also very important and is a creative process. Then once you collect the data you analyze it to see if your hypothesis is supported or not."
The steps of the scientific method go something like this, according to Highline College :
Some key underpinnings to the scientific method:
The process of generating and testing a hypothesis forms the backbone of the scientific method. When an idea has been confirmed over many experiments, it can be called a scientific theory. While a theory provides an explanation for a phenomenon, a scientific law provides a description of a phenomenon, according to The University of Waikato . One example would be the law of conservation of energy, which is the first law of thermodynamics that says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
A law describes an observed phenomenon, but it doesn't explain why the phenomenon exists or what causes it. "In science, laws are a starting place," said Peter Coppinger, an associate professor of biology and biomedical engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. "From there, scientists can then ask the questions, 'Why and how?'"
Laws are generally considered to be without exception, though some laws have been modified over time after further testing found discrepancies. For instance, Newton's laws of motion describe everything we've observed in the macroscopic world, but they break down at the subatomic level.
This does not mean theories are not meaningful. For a hypothesis to become a theory, scientists must conduct rigorous testing, typically across multiple disciplines by separate groups of scientists. Saying something is "just a theory" confuses the scientific definition of "theory" with the layperson's definition. To most people a theory is a hunch. In science, a theory is the framework for observations and facts, Tanner told Live Science.
The earliest evidence of science can be found as far back as records exist. Early tablets contain numerals and information about the solar system , which were derived by using careful observation, prediction and testing of those predictions. Science became decidedly more "scientific" over time, however.
1200s: Robert Grosseteste developed the framework for the proper methods of modern scientific experimentation, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. His works included the principle that an inquiry must be based on measurable evidence that is confirmed through testing.
1400s: Leonardo da Vinci began his notebooks in pursuit of evidence that the human body is microcosmic. The artist, scientist and mathematician also gathered information about optics and hydrodynamics.
1500s: Nicolaus Copernicus advanced the understanding of the solar system with his discovery of heliocentrism. This is a model in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun, which is the center of the solar system.
1600s: Johannes Kepler built upon those observations with his laws of planetary motion. Galileo Galilei improved on a new invention, the telescope, and used it to study the sun and planets. The 1600s also saw advancements in the study of physics as Isaac Newton developed his laws of motion.
1700s: Benjamin Franklin discovered that lightning is electrical. He also contributed to the study of oceanography and meteorology. The understanding of chemistry also evolved during this century as Antoine Lavoisier, dubbed the father of modern chemistry , developed the law of conservation of mass.
1800s: Milestones included Alessandro Volta's discoveries regarding electrochemical series, which led to the invention of the battery. John Dalton also introduced atomic theory, which stated that all matter is composed of atoms that combine to form molecules. The basis of modern study of genetics advanced as Gregor Mendel unveiled his laws of inheritance. Later in the century, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays , while George Ohm's law provided the basis for understanding how to harness electrical charges.
1900s: The discoveries of Albert Einstein , who is best known for his theory of relativity, dominated the beginning of the 20th century. Einstein's theory of relativity is actually two separate theories. His special theory of relativity, which he outlined in a 1905 paper, " The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies ," concluded that time must change according to the speed of a moving object relative to the frame of reference of an observer. His second theory of general relativity, which he published as " The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity ," advanced the idea that matter causes space to curve.
In 1952, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine , which reduced the incidence of polio in the United States by nearly 90%, according to Britannica . The following year, James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA , which is a double helix formed by base pairs attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute .
2000s: The 21st century saw the first draft of the human genome completed, leading to a greater understanding of DNA. This advanced the study of genetics, its role in human biology and its use as a predictor of diseases and other disorders, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute .
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Scientia. 2022. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scientia
University of California, Berkeley, "Understanding Science: An Overview." 2022. https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/intro_01
Highline College, "Scientific method." July 12, 2015. https://people.highline.edu/iglozman/classes/astronotes/scimeth.htm
North Carolina State University, "Science Scripts." https://projects.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/science/science_scripts.html
University of California, Santa Barbara. "What is an Independent variable?" October 31,2017. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=6045
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Control group." May 14, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/science/control-group
The University of Waikato, "Scientific Hypothesis, Theories and Laws." https://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/Theories.shtml
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Robert Grosseteste. May 3, 2019. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/grosseteste/
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Jonas Salk." October 21, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/ biography /Jonas-Salk
National Human Genome Research Institute, "Phosphate Backbone." https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Phosphate-Backbone
National Human Genome Research Institute, "What is the Human Genome Project?" https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project/What
Live Science contributor Ashley Hamer updated this article on Jan. 16, 2022.
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Here’s how you know
We’ve all seen the words “complementary,” “alternative,” and “integrative,” but what do they really mean?
This fact sheet looks into these terms to help you understand them better and gives you a brief picture of the mission and role of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) in this area of research. The terms “complementary,” “alternative,” and “integrative” are continually evolving, along with the field, but the descriptions of these terms below are how we at the National Institutes of Health currently define them.
According to a 2012 national survey, many Americans—more than 30 percent of adults and about 12 percent of children—use health care approaches that are not typically part of conventional medical care or that may have origins outside of usual Western practice. When describing these approaches, people often use “alternative” and “complementary” interchangeably, but the two terms refer to different concepts:
Most people who use non-mainstream approaches also use conventional health care.
In addition to the terms complementary and alternative, you may also hear the term “functional medicine.” This term sometimes refers to a concept similar to integrative health (described below), but it may also refer to an approach that more closely resembles naturopathy (a medical system that has evolved from a combination of traditional practices and health care approaches popular in Europe during the 19th century).
Integrative health brings conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. Integrative health also emphasizes multimodal interventions, which are two or more interventions such as conventional health care approaches (like medication, physical rehabilitation, psychotherapy), and complementary health approaches (like acupuncture, yoga, and probiotics) in various combinations, with an emphasis on treating the whole person rather than, for example, one organ system. Integrative health aims for well-coordinated care among different providers and institutions by bringing conventional and complementary approaches together to care for the whole person.
The use of integrative approaches to health and wellness has grown within care settings across the United States. Researchers are currently exploring the potential benefits of integrative health in a variety of situations, including pain management for military personnel and veterans, relief of symptoms in cancer patients and survivors, and programs to promote healthy behaviors.
Whole person health refers to helping individuals, families, communities, and populations improve and restore their health in multiple interconnected domains—biological, behavioral, social, environmental—rather than just treating disease. Research on whole person health includes expanding the understanding of the connections between these various aspects of health, including connections between organs and body systems.
Complementary approaches can be classified by their primary therapeutic input (how the therapy is taken in or delivered), which may be:
Nutritional approaches include what NCCIH previously categorized as natural products, whereas psychological and/or physical approaches include what was referred to as mind and body practices.
Click image to enlarge
These approaches include a variety of products, such as herbs (also known as botanicals), vitamins and minerals , and probiotics . They are widely marketed, readily available to consumers, and often sold as dietary supplements .
According to the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which included a comprehensive survey on the use of complementary health approaches by Americans, 17.7 percent of American adults had used a dietary supplement other than vitamins and minerals in the past year. These products were the most popular complementary health approach in the survey. (See chart.) The most commonly used nonvitamin, nonmineral dietary supplement was fish oil.
Researchers have done large, rigorous studies on a few dietary supplements, but the results often showed that the products didn’t work for the conditions studied. Research on others is in progress. While there are indications that some may be helpful, more needs to be learned about the effects of these products in the human body, and about their safety and potential interactions with medicines and other natural products.
Complementary physical and/or psychological approaches include tai chi , yoga , acupuncture , massage therapy , spinal manipulation , art therapy, music therapy, dance, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and many others. These approaches are often administered or taught by a trained practitioner or teacher. The 2012 NHIS showed that yoga, chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation , and meditation are among the most popular complementary health approaches used by adults. According to the 2017 NHIS , the popularity of yoga has grown dramatically in recent years, from 9.5 percent of U.S. adults practicing yoga in 2012 to 14.3 percent in 2017. The 2017 NHIS also showed that the use of meditation increased more than threefold from 4.1 percent in 2012 to 14.2 percent in 2017.
Other psychological and physical approaches include relaxation techniques (such as breathing exercises and guided imagery), qigong , hypnotherapy , Feldenkrais method, Alexander technique, Pilates, Rolfing Structural Integration, and Trager psychophysical integration.
Research findings suggest that several psychological and physical approaches, alone or in combination, are helpful for a variety of conditions. A few examples include the following:
The amount of research on psychological and physical approaches varies widely depending on the practice. For example, researchers have done many studies on acupuncture, yoga, spinal manipulation, and meditation, but there have been fewer studies on some other approaches.
Some complementary approaches may not neatly fit into either of these groups—for example, the practices of traditional healers, Ayurvedic medicine , traditional Chinese medicine , homeopathy , naturopathy , and functional medicine.
NCCIH is the Federal Government’s lead agency for scientific research on complementary and integrative health approaches.
The mission of NCCIH is to determine, through rigorous scientific investigation, the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care.
NCCIH’s vision is that scientific evidence informs decision making by the public, by health care professionals, and by health policymakers regarding the integrated use of complementary health approaches in a whole person health framework.
Nccih strategic plan.
NCCIH’s current strategic plan, Strategic Plan FY 2021 – 2025: Mapping a Pathway to Research on Whole Person Health , presents a series of goals and objectives to guide us in determining priorities for future research on complementary health approaches.
The NCCIH Clearinghouse provides information on NCCIH and complementary and integrative health approaches, including publications and searches of Federal databases of scientific and medical literature. The Clearinghouse does not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or referrals to practitioners.
Toll-free in the U.S.: 1-888-644-6226
Telecommunications relay service (TRS): 7-1-1
Website: https://www.nccih.nih.gov
Email: [email protected] (link sends email)
This publication is not copyrighted and is in the public domain. Duplication is encouraged.
NCCIH has provided this material for your information. It is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your health care provider(s). We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider. The mention of any product, service, or therapy is not an endorsement by NCCIH.
Related Topics
NCCIH Strategic Plan FY 2021–2025 Mapping a Pathway to Research on Whole Person Health
Related Fact Sheets
Are You Considering a Complementary Health Approach?
Be an Informed Consumer
This glossary provides definitions of many of the terms used in the guides to conducting qualitative and quantitative research. The definitions were developed by members of the research methods seminar (E600) taught by Mike Palmquist in the 1990s and 2000s.
Members of the Research Methods Seminar (E600) taught by Mike Palmquist in the 1990s and 2000s. (1994-2024). Glossary of Key Terms. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.
Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021 than in any other year on record, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That included record numbers of both gun murders and gun suicides. Despite the increase in such fatalities, the rate of gun deaths – a statistic that accounts for the nation’s growing population – remained below the levels of earlier decades.
Here’s a closer look at gun deaths in the United States, based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the CDC, the FBI and other sources. You can also read key public opinion findings about U.S. gun violence and gun policy .
This Pew Research Center analysis examines the changing number and rate of gun deaths in the United States. It is based primarily on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The CDC’s statistics are based on information contained in official death certificates, while the FBI’s figures are based on information voluntarily submitted by thousands of police departments around the country.
For the number and rate of gun deaths over time, we relied on mortality statistics in the CDC’s WONDER database covering four distinct time periods: 1968 to 1978 , 1979 to 1998 , 1999 to 2020 , and 2021 . While these statistics are mostly comparable for the full 1968-2021 period, gun murders and suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified by the CDC as involving firearms and explosives; those between 1979 and 2021 are classified as involving firearms only. Similarly, gun deaths involving law enforcement between 1968 and 1978 exclude those caused by “operations of war”; those between 1979 and 2021 include that category, which refers to gun deaths among military personnel or civilians due to war or civil insurrection in the U.S . All CDC gun death estimates in this analysis are adjusted to account for age differences over time and across states.
The FBI’s statistics about the types of firearms used in gun murders in 2020 come from the bureau’s Crime Data Explorer website . Specifically, they are drawn from the expanded homicide tables of the agency’s 2020 Crime in the United States report . The FBI’s statistics include murders and non-negligent manslaughters involving firearms.
In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths tracked by the CDC: those that were accidental, those that involved law enforcement and those whose circumstances could not be determined. The total excludes deaths in which gunshot injuries played a contributing, but not principal, role. (CDC fatality statistics are based on information contained in official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death.)
Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths . In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (26,328), while 43% were murders (20,958), according to the CDC. The remaining gun deaths that year were accidental (549), involved law enforcement (537) or had undetermined circumstances (458).
About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.
The record 48,830 total gun deaths in 2021 reflect a 23% increase since 2019, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic .
Gun murders, in particular, have climbed sharply during the pandemic, increasing 45% between 2019 and 2021, while the number of gun suicides rose 10% during that span.
The overall increase in U.S. gun deaths since the beginning of the pandemic includes an especially stark rise in such fatalities among children and teens under the age of 18. Gun deaths among children and teens rose 50% in just two years , from 1,732 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021.
While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021 – the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.
The gun murder rate in the U.S. remains below its peak level despite rising sharply during the pandemic. There were 6.7 gun murders per 100,000 people in 2021, below the 7.2 recorded in 1974.
The gun suicide rate, on the other hand, is now on par with its historical peak. There were 7.5 gun suicides per 100,000 people in 2021, statistically similar to the 7.7 measured in 1977. (One caveat when considering the 1970s figures: In the CDC’s database, gun murders and gun suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified as those caused by firearms and explosives. In subsequent years, they are classified as deaths involving firearms only.)
The rate of gun fatalities varies widely from state to state. In 2021, the states with the highest total rates of gun-related deaths – counting murders, suicides and all other categories tracked by the CDC – included Mississippi (33.9 per 100,000 people), Louisiana (29.1), New Mexico (27.8), Alabama (26.4) and Wyoming (26.1). The states with the lowest total rates included Massachusetts (3.4), Hawaii (4.8), New Jersey (5.2), New York (5.4) and Rhode Island (5.6).
The results are somewhat different when looking at gun murder and gun suicide rates separately. The places with the highest gun murder rates in 2021 included the District of Columbia (22.3 per 100,000 people), Mississippi (21.2), Louisiana (18.4), Alabama (13.9) and New Mexico (11.7). Those with the lowest gun murder rates included Massachusetts (1.5), Idaho (1.5), Hawaii (1.6), Utah (2.1) and Iowa (2.2). Rate estimates are not available for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Wyoming.
The states with the highest gun suicide rates in 2021 included Wyoming (22.8 per 100,000 people), Montana (21.1), Alaska (19.9), New Mexico (13.9) and Oklahoma (13.7). The states with the lowest gun suicide rates were Massachusetts (1.7), New Jersey (1.9), New York (2.0), Hawaii (2.8) and Connecticut (2.9). Rate estimates are not available for the District of Columbia.
The gun death rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed nations. But it is still far below the rates in several Latin American countries, according to a 2018 study of 195 countries and territories by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The U.S. gun death rate was 10.6 per 100,000 people in 2016, the most recent year in the study, which used a somewhat different methodology from the CDC. That was far higher than in countries such as Canada (2.1 per 100,000) and Australia (1.0), as well as European nations such as France (2.7), Germany (0.9) and Spain (0.6). But the rate in the U.S. was much lower than in El Salvador (39.2 per 100,000 people), Venezuela (38.7), Guatemala (32.3), Colombia (25.9) and Honduras (22.5), the study found. Overall, the U.S. ranked 20th in its gun fatality rate that year .
This is a difficult question to answer because there is no single, agreed-upon definition of the term “mass shooting.” Definitions can vary depending on factors including the number of victims and the circumstances of the shooting.
The FBI collects data on “active shooter incidents,” which it defines as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” Using the FBI’s definition, 103 people – excluding the shooters – died in such incidents in 2021 .
The Gun Violence Archive, an online database of gun violence incidents in the U.S., defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people are shot, even if no one was killed (again excluding the shooters). Using this definition, 706 people died in these incidents in 2021 .
Regardless of the definition being used, fatalities in mass shooting incidents in the U.S. account for a small fraction of all gun murders that occur nationwide each year.
The same definitional issue that makes it challenging to calculate mass shooting fatalities comes into play when trying to determine the frequency of U.S. mass shootings over time. The unpredictability of these incidents also complicates matters: As Rand Corp. noted in a research brief , “Chance variability in the annual number of mass shooting incidents makes it challenging to discern a clear trend, and trend estimates will be sensitive to outliers and to the time frame chosen for analysis.”
The FBI found an increase in active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2021. There were three such incidents in 2000. By 2021, that figure had increased to 61.
In 2020, the most recent year for which the FBI has published data, handguns were involved in 59% of the 13,620 U.S. gun murders and non-negligent manslaughters for which data is available. Rifles – the category that includes guns sometimes referred to as “assault weapons” – were involved in 3% of firearm murders. Shotguns were involved in 1%. The remainder of gun homicides and non-negligent manslaughters (36%) involved other kinds of firearms or those classified as “type not stated.”
It’s important to note that the FBI’s statistics do not capture the details on all gun murders in the U.S. each year. The FBI’s data is based on information voluntarily submitted by police departments around the country, and not all agencies participate or provide complete information each year.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Aug. 16, 2019.
John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center .
About 1 in 4 u.s. teachers say their school went into a gun-related lockdown in the last school year, striking findings from 2023, key facts about americans and guns, for most u.s. gun owners, protection is the main reason they own a gun, most popular.
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Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change , primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
The main greenhouse gases that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heating a building, for example. Clearing land and cutting down forests can also release carbon dioxide. Agriculture, oil and gas operations are major sources of methane emissions. Energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and land use are among the main sectors causing greenhouse gases.
Climate scientists have showed that humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years. Human activities like the ones mentioned above are causing greenhouse gases that are warming the world faster than at any time in at least the last two thousand years.
The average temperature of the Earth’s surface is now about 1.2°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s (before the industrial revolution) and warmer than at any time in the last 100,000 years. The last decade (2011-2020) was the warmest on record , and each of the last four decades has been warmer than any previous decade since 1850.
Many people think climate change mainly means warmer temperatures. But temperature rise is only the beginning of the story. Because the Earth is a system, where everything is connected, changes in one area can influence changes in all others.
The consequences of climate change now include, among others, intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.
Climate change can affect our health , ability to grow food, housing, safety and work. Some of us are already more vulnerable to climate impacts, such as people living in small island nations and other developing countries. Conditions like sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion have advanced to the point where whole communities have had to relocate, and protracted droughts are putting people at risk of famine. In the future, the number of people displaced by weather-related events is expected to rise.
In a series of UN reports , thousands of scientists and government reviewers agreed that limiting global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Yet policies currently in place point to a 3°C temperature rise by the end of the century.
The emissions that cause climate change come from every part of the world and affect everyone, but some countries produce much more than others .The seven biggest emitters alone (China, the United States of America, India, the European Union, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Brazil) accounted for about half of all global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.
Everyone must take climate action, but people and countries creating more of the problem have a greater responsibility to act first.
Many climate change solutions can deliver economic benefits while improving our lives and protecting the environment. We also have global frameworks and agreements to guide progress, such as the Sustainable Development Goals , the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement . Three broad categories of action are: cutting emissions, adapting to climate impacts and financing required adjustments.
Switching energy systems from fossil fuels to renewables like solar or wind will reduce the emissions driving climate change. But we have to act now. While a growing number of countries is committing to net zero emissions by 2050, emissions must be cut in half by 2030 to keep warming below 1.5°C. Achieving this means huge declines in the use of coal, oil and gas: over two-thirds of today’s proven reserves of fossil fuels need to be kept in the ground by 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic levels of climate change.
Adapting to climate consequences protects people, homes, businesses, livelihoods, infrastructure and natural ecosystems. It covers current impacts and those likely in the future. Adaptation will be required everywhere, but must be prioritized now for the most vulnerable people with the fewest resources to cope with climate hazards. The rate of return can be high. Early warning systems for disasters, for instance, save lives and property, and can deliver benefits up to 10 times the initial cost.
Climate action requires significant financial investments by governments and businesses. But climate inaction is vastly more expensive. One critical step is for industrialized countries to fulfil their commitment to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries so they can adapt and move towards greener economies.
To get familiar with some of the more technical terms used in connection with climate change, consult the Climate Dictionary .
Climate change is a hot topic – with myths and falsehoods circulating widely. Find some essential facts here .
See the latest climate reports from the United Nations as well as climate action facts .
Fossil fuels are by far the largest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, which poses many risks to all forms of life on Earth. Learn more .
Read the UN Chief’s latest statements on climate action.
What is net zero? Why is it important? Our net-zero page explains why we need steep emissions cuts now and what efforts are underway.
What is renewable energy and why does it matter? Learn more about why the shift to renewables is our only hope for a brighter and safer world.
How will the world foot the bill? We explain the issues and the value of financing climate action.
What is climate adaptation? Why is it so important for every country? Find out how we can protect lives and livelihoods as the climate changes.
Learn more about how climate change impacts are felt across different sectors and ecosystems.
Women and girls are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and uniquely situated to drive action. Find out why it’s time to invest in women.
Sherry Tiao | Senior Manager, AI & Analytics, Oracle | March 11, 2024
In This Article
The three “vs” of big data, the value—and truth—of big data, the history of big data, big data use cases, big data challenges, how big data works, big data best practices.
What exactly is big data?
The definition of big data is data that contains greater variety, arriving in increasing volumes and with more velocity. This is also known as the three “Vs.”
Put simply, big data is larger, more complex data sets, especially from new data sources. These data sets are so voluminous that traditional data processing software just can’t manage them. But these massive volumes of data can be used to address business problems you wouldn’t have been able to tackle before.
Volume | The amount of data matters. With big data, you’ll have to process high volumes of low-density, unstructured data. This can be data of unknown value, such as X (formerly Twitter) data feeds, clickstreams on a web page or a mobile app, or sensor-enabled equipment. For some organizations, this might be tens of terabytes of data. For others, it may be hundreds of petabytes. |
Velocity | Velocity is the fast rate at which data is received and (perhaps) acted on. Normally, the highest velocity of data streams directly into memory versus being written to disk. Some internet-enabled smart products operate in real time or near real time and will require real-time evaluation and action. |
Variety | Variety refers to the many types of data that are available. Traditional data types were structured and fit neatly in a . With the rise of big data, data comes in new unstructured data types. Unstructured and semistructured data types, such as text, audio, and video, require additional preprocessing to derive meaning and support metadata. |
Two more Vs have emerged over the past few years: value and veracity . Data has intrinsic value. But it’s of no use until that value is discovered. Equally important: How truthful is your data—and how much can you rely on it?
Today, big data has become capital. Think of some of the world’s biggest tech companies. A large part of the value they offer comes from their data, which they’re constantly analyzing to produce more efficiency and develop new products.
Recent technological breakthroughs have exponentially reduced the cost of data storage and compute, making it easier and less expensive to store more data than ever before. With an increased volume of big data now cheaper and more accessible, you can make more accurate and precise business decisions.
Finding value in big data isn’t only about analyzing it (which is a whole other benefit). It’s an entire discovery process that requires insightful analysts, business users, and executives who ask the right questions, recognize patterns, make informed assumptions, and predict behavior.
But how did we get here?
Although the concept of big data itself is relatively new, the origins of large data sets go back to the 1960s and ‘70s when the world of data was just getting started with the first data centers and the development of the relational database.
Around 2005, people began to realize just how much data users generated through Facebook, YouTube, and other online services. Hadoop (an open source framework created specifically to store and analyze big data sets) was developed that same year. NoSQL also began to gain popularity during this time.
The development of open source frameworks, such as Hadoop (and more recently, Spark) was essential for the growth of big data because they make big data easier to work with and cheaper to store. In the years since then, the volume of big data has skyrocketed. Users are still generating huge amounts of data—but it’s not just humans who are doing it.
With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), more objects and devices are connected to the internet, gathering data on customer usage patterns and product performance. The emergence of machine learning has produced still more data.
While big data has come far, its usefulness is only just beginning. Cloud computing has expanded big data possibilities even further. The cloud offers truly elastic scalability, where developers can simply spin up ad hoc clusters to test a subset of data. And graph databases are becoming increasingly important as well, with their ability to display massive amounts of data in a way that makes analytics fast and comprehensive.
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Big data can help you address a range of business activities, including customer experience and analytics. Here are just a few.
Product development | Companies like Netflix and Procter & Gamble use big data to anticipate customer demand. They build predictive models for new products and services by classifying key attributes of past and current products or services and modeling the relationship between those attributes and the commercial success of the offerings. In addition, P&G uses data and analytics from focus groups, social media, test markets, and early store rollouts to plan, produce, and launch new products. |
Predictive maintenance | Factors that can predict mechanical failures may be deeply buried in structured data, such as the year, make, and model of equipment, as well as in unstructured data that covers millions of log entries, sensor data, error messages, and engine temperature. By analyzing these indications of potential issues before the problems happen, organizations can deploy maintenance more cost effectively and maximize parts and equipment uptime. |
Customer experience | The race for customers is on. A clearer view of customer experience is more possible now than ever before. Big data enables you to gather data from social media, web visits, call logs, and other sources to improve the interaction experience and maximize the value delivered. Start delivering personalized offers, reduce customer churn, and handle issues proactively. |
Fraud and compliance | When it comes to security, it’s not just a few rogue hackers—you’re up against entire expert teams. Security landscapes and compliance requirements are constantly evolving. Big data helps you identify patterns in data that indicate fraud and aggregate large volumes of information to make regulatory reporting much faster. |
Machine learning | Machine learning is a hot topic right now. And data—specifically big data—is one of the reasons why. We are now able to teach machines instead of program them. The availability of big data to train machine learning models makes that possible. |
Operational efficiency | Operational efficiency may not always make the news, but it’s an area in which big data is having the most impact. With big data, you can analyze and assess production, customer feedback and returns, and other factors to reduce outages and anticipate future demands. Big data can also be used to improve decision-making in line with current market demand. |
Drive innovation | Big data can help you innovate by studying interdependencies among humans, institutions, entities, and process and then determining new ways to use those insights. Use data insights to improve decisions about financial and planning considerations. Examine trends and what customers want to deliver new products and services. Implement dynamic pricing. There are endless possibilities. |
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While big data holds a lot of promise, it is not without its challenges.
First, big data is…big. Although new technologies have been developed for data storage, data volumes are doubling in size about every two years. Organizations still struggle to keep pace with their data and find ways to effectively store it.
But it’s not enough to just store the data. Data must be used to be valuable and that depends on curation. Clean data, or data that’s relevant to the client and organized in a way that enables meaningful analysis, requires a lot of work. Data scientists spend 50 to 80 percent of their time curating and preparing data before it can actually be used.
Finally, big data technology is changing at a rapid pace. A few years ago, Apache Hadoop was the popular technology used to handle big data. Then Apache Spark was introduced in 2014. Today, a combination of the two frameworks appears to be the best approach. Keeping up with big data technology is an ongoing challenge.
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Big data gives you new insights that open up new opportunities and business models. Getting started involves three key actions:
1. Integrate Big data brings together data from many disparate sources and applications. Traditional data integration mechanisms, such as extract, transform, and load (ETL) generally aren’t up to the task. It requires new strategies and technologies to analyze big data sets at terabyte, or even petabyte, scale.
During integration, you need to bring in the data, process it, and make sure it’s formatted and available in a form that your business analysts can get started with.
2. Manage Big data requires storage. Your storage solution can be in the cloud, on premises, or both. You can store your data in any form you want and bring your desired processing requirements and necessary process engines to those data sets on an on-demand basis. Many people choose their storage solution according to where their data is currently residing. The cloud is gradually gaining popularity because it supports your current compute requirements and enables you to spin up resources as needed.
3. Analyze Your investment in big data pays off when you analyze and act on your data. Get new clarity with a visual analysis of your varied data sets. Explore the data further to make new discoveries. Share your findings with others. Build data models with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Put your data to work.
To help you on your big data journey, we’ve put together some key best practices for you to keep in mind. Here are our guidelines for building a successful big data foundation.
Align big data with specific business goals | More extensive data sets enable you to make new discoveries. To that end, it is important to base new investments in skills, organization, or infrastructure with a strong business-driven context to guarantee ongoing project investments and funding. To determine if you are on the right track, ask how big data supports and enables your top business and IT priorities. Examples include understanding how to filter web logs to understand ecommerce behavior, deriving sentiment from social media and customer support interactions, and understanding statistical correlation methods and their relevance for customer, product, manufacturing, and engineering data. |
Ease skills shortage with standards and governance | One of the biggest obstacles to benefiting from your investment in big data is a skills shortage. You can mitigate this risk by ensuring that big data technologies, considerations, and decisions are added to your IT governance program. Standardizing your approach will allow you to manage costs and leverage resources. Organizations implementing big data solutions and strategies should assess their skill requirements early and often and should proactively identify any potential skill gaps. These can be addressed by training/cross-training existing resources, hiring new resources, and leveraging consulting firms. |
Optimize knowledge transfer with a center of excellence | Use a center of excellence approach to share knowledge, control oversight, and manage project communications. Whether big data is a new or expanding investment, the soft and hard costs can be shared across the enterprise. Leveraging this approach can help increase big data capabilities and overall information architecture maturity in a more structured and systematic way. |
Top payoff is aligning unstructured with structured data | It is certainly valuable to analyze big data on its own. But you can bring even greater business insights by connecting and integrating low density big data with the structured data you are already using today. Whether you are capturing customer, product, equipment, or environmental big data, the goal is to add more relevant data points to your core master and analytical summaries, leading to better conclusions. For example, there is a difference in distinguishing all customer sentiment from that of only your best customers. Which is why many see big data as an integral extension of their existing business intelligence capabilities, data warehousing platform, and information architecture. Keep in mind that the big data analytical processes and models can be both human- and machine-based. Big data analytical capabilities include statistics, spatial analysis, semantics, interactive discovery, and visualization. Using analytical models, you can correlate different types and sources of data to make associations and meaningful discoveries. |
Plan your discovery lab for performance | Discovering meaning in your data is not always straightforward. Sometimes we don’t even know what we’re looking for. That’s expected. Management and IT needs to support this “lack of direction” or “lack of clear requirement.” At the same time, it’s important for analysts and data scientists to work closely with the business to understand key business knowledge gaps and requirements. To accommodate the interactive exploration of data and the experimentation of statistical algorithms, you need high-performance work areas. Be sure that sandbox environments have the support they need—and are properly governed. |
Align with the cloud operating model | Big data processes and users require access to a broad array of resources for both iterative experimentation and running production jobs. A big data solution includes all data realms including transactions, master data, reference data, and summarized data. Analytical sandboxes should be created on demand. Resource management is critical to ensure control of the entire data flow including pre- and post-processing, integration, in-database summarization, and analytical modeling. A well-planned private and public cloud provisioning and security strategy plays an integral role in supporting these changing requirements. |
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Let us pretend we are doing research on nurturing international business research through global value chains literature. You do not need to include definitions for research, business, international, global, etc. These terms are common knowledge and are mostly understood the same way by everyone.
research terminologies in educational research. It provides definitions of many of the terms used in the guidebooks to conducting qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods of research. The terms are arranged in alphabetical order. Abstract A brief summary of a research project and its findings. A summary of a study that
Key terms are the "means of exchange" in disciplines. You gain entry into the discussion by demonstrating how well you know and understand them. Some disciplinary keywords can be tricky because they mean one thing in ordinary speech but can mean something different in the discipline. For instance, in ordinary speech, we use the word shadow ...
A key term is a term that holds significant importance or plays a crucial role within the context of a research paper. It is a term that encapsulates a core concept, idea, or variable that is central to the study. Key terms are often essential for understanding the research objectives, methodology, findings, and conclusions.
Defining Key Terms. If you have chosen a topic, you may break the topic down into a few main concepts and then list and/or define key terms related to that concept. If you have performed some background searching, you can include some of the words that were used to describe your topic. For example, if your topic deals with the relationship ...
Colorado State University; Glossary A-Z. Education.com; Glossary of Research Terms. Research Mindedness Virtual Learning Resource. Centre for Human Servive Technology. University of Southampton; Miller, Robert L. and Brewer, John D. The A-Z of Social Research: A Dictionary of Key Social Science Research Concepts London: SAGE, 2003; Jupp, Victor.
Key Research Terms. bias: any influence that may distort the results of a research study and lead to error; the loss of balance and accuracy in the use of research methods. ... If the operational definitions of the constructs are poor, the study will not have good construct validity. For example, a test claiming to measure "aggressiveness ...
Defining terms. In academic work students are often expected to give definitions of key words and phrases in order to demonstrate to their tutors that they understand these terms clearly. More generally, however, academic writers define terms so that their readers understand exactly what is meant when certain key terms are used. When important ...
Key Terms: Introduction. In academic writing, there are times when certain words or phrases are made to carry precise technical meaning. In other words, there are times when certain words or phrases in academic writing get elevated to the status of Key Terms. This happens in every academic discipline for a number of interrelated reasons ...
Figure 1.1 will help you contextualize many of these terms and understand the research process. This general chart begins with two key concepts: ontology and epistemology, advances through other concepts, and concludes with three research methodological approaches: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.
Figure 1.1 is a general chart that will help you contextualize many of these terms and also understand the research process. As you can see, Figure 1.1 begins with two key concepts: ontology and epistemology, advances through other concepts and concludes with three research methodological approaches: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods ...
This glossary provides definitions of many of the terms used in the guides to conducting qualitative and quantitative research. The definitions were developed by ... the results of a research question. A key element in experimental research is that participants in a study are randomly assigned to groups. In an attempt to create a causal model ...
Revised on July 18, 2023. A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it's a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and it's intended to enhance their ...
Well, you take the most important words in your research statement/question and use them as key terms. Use those key terms in conjunction with each other (see the section on "Combining Key Terms" for advice about how to do so). Also, use synonyms of your key terms.
Research Methods Key Term Glossary. This key term glossary provides brief definitions for the core terms and concepts covered in Research Methods for A Level Psychology. Don't forget to also make full use of our research methods study notes and revision quizzes to support your studies and exam revision. Aim. The researcher's area of interest ...
Glossary of Common Research Terms Term Definition Abstract This is a brief summary of a research study and its results. It should tell you why the study was done, how the researchers went about it and what they found. Action Research Action research is used to bring about improvement or practical change. A group of people who know about a
Key Terms for Psychological Research. archival research. method of research using past records or data sets to answer various research questions, or to search for interesting patterns or relationships. attrition. reduction in number of research participants as some drop out of the study over time. cause-and-effect relationship.
Field diary - A notebook in which a researcher records observation during the research process. One of the key tools of Participant Observation. Field experiments - experiments which take place in a real-life setting such as a classroom, the work place or even the high street. See experiments and related terms for a fuller definition.
The study is intended to describe the methods of defining terms found in the theses of the English Foreign Language (EFL) students of IAIN Palangka Raya. The method to be used is a mixed method, qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative approach was used to identify, describe the frequencies, and classify the methods of defining terms.
Mean: The mean (or arithmetic mean) is what most people are referring to when the say average. It is simply the total sum of all the numbers in a data set, divided by the number of different data points. Median: The middle data point in a data set. Mode: The most common data point in a data set. This is the value that occurs with greatest ...
Quantitative research design is defined as a research method used in various disciplines, including social sciences, psychology, economics, and market research. It aims to collect and analyze numerical data to answer research questions and test hypotheses. Quantitative research design offers several advantages, including the ability to ...
The purpose of this Glossary of Terms is to help novice researchers in understanding basic. research terminologies in educational research. It provides definitions of many of the terms used in ...
Research must involve deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is the process of using true premises to reach a logical true conclusion while inductive reasoning uses ...
The mission of NCCIH is to determine, through rigorous scientific investigation, the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. NCCIH's vision is that scientific evidence informs decision making by the public, by health care professionals ...
Glossary of Key Research Terms. This glossary provides definitions of many of the terms used in the guides to conducting qualitative and quantitative research. The definitions were developed by members of the research methods seminar (E600) taught by Mike Palmquist in the 1990s and 2000s.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the theory and development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that historically required human intelligence, such as recognizing speech, making decisions, and identifying patterns. AI is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of technologies, including machine learning, deep learning, and ...
About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 - 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% - involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. More than half of all suicides in 2021 - 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% - also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.
More research is needed to understand Long COVID in children, as information from adult studies may not be directly applicable. The report says that Long COVID is a relatively novel and rapidly evolving condition. Continued research on its effects, both on individual health outcomes and societal implications, will be necessary to effectively ...
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun's activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s ...
The definition of big data is data that contains greater variety, arriving in increasing volumes and with more velocity. This is also known as the three "Vs.". Put simply, big data is larger, more complex data sets, especially from new data sources. These data sets are so voluminous that traditional data processing software just can't ...