Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The BOOK - it's coming!

I don't think I mentioned in our last post that we are working on a book on how to use SSD for R. We are hoping to have the manuscript for this finished by the fall, as is Oxford University Press, who will be publishing our book!

We thought we would share with you a little bit here about what the book is going to be like because it is going to be UNIQUE!  First, what our book is NOT going to be:  it's not going to be a primer on single-subject research designs because there are several excellent texts currently available that address this - and we point you to those texts in our book.  It is, however, going to teach you how to use SSD for R to collect and analyze your own single-subject research data for FREE!  We show you how to use the robust set of visual analytic tools in the package (we have graphics galore), but also when and how to give consideration to statistical techniques that are unique to single-subject research data.  For example, we give suggestions for dealing with that niggling little problem of autocorrelation that can impede any type of analysis - both visual and statistical - and can't be detected through visual analysis alone.

The book is also structured a bit differently than statistics textbooks.  We don't have, for instance, chapters about specific tests, but we focus more on the process of how to analyze this type of data.  Visual and statistical analysis is brought in throughout the text in the context of the analysis process.  We think that this is a user-friendly way to approach the topic, and it is the same method we use to teach and conduct our own research.

Also good news - we are road testing the manuscript.  We have used portions of the manuscript with students in our classes last semester and we continue to do so as we keep writing and refining.  Our next group of students will be starting classes next week so we hope to share with you how we use SSD for R in the classroom throughout the summer.

In the meantime, please visit our website frequently.  We are always adding documents and videos to make using SSD for R accessible for everyone!  And, as always, feel free to e-mail us.  We love to hear from you!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Welcome to SSD for R!


Welcome to the SSD for R Blog!  

Through our blog, we hope to create an on-line community in which we, the developers of SSD for R, and you, folks interested in single-subject research, can have dialogues that will be interesting and helpful to all of us.  We will be writing on this blog on a regular basis on topics of interest to single-subject researchers.  We invite you to react to our postings and to each other. 

We are asking for your contributions to this blog!  If there is a topic you would like us to address, please let us know.  If you have an idea for a posting and/or would like to be a guest author, we would welcome that, too.  We are hoping to create an open dialogue on the design and analysis of single-subject research across areas of study - so please join us if you are a social worker, educator, physician, occupational therapist, psychologist, student, or just someone who is interested in learning more about this type of research.

As you may already know, SSD for R is FREELY available on CRAN (The Comprehensive R Archive Network).  Learn more about SSD for R and how to quickly and easily get started using it by visiting our website.

Also, feel free to contact us here with any comments or questions.