Using microcomputers in research. (English) Zbl 0663.68001

Madron, Thomas Wm.; Tate, C. Neal; Brookshire, Robert G.

Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, No. 07-052. Beverly Hills-London-New Delhi: Sage Publications. 87 p.; £5.50 (1985).

From the series editor’s introduction: “In this book the authors consider the many ways in which microcomputers can be used to expedite both quantative and nonquantative research. This volume should be read together with the earlier book in this series, “Microcomputer methods for social scientists”, by Ph. A. Schrodt (1983; 2nd ed. 1987)...
Chapter I presents microcomputer hardware, software and terminology. Chapter 2 begins with discussion of use of microcomputers in the first stage of most research projects... as word processors... In chapter 3 the authors introduce the spreadsheet program, a tool developed for business budgeting and forecasting... In chapter 4 the authors demonstrate the use of file and data base management programs... Chapter 5 describes communcations hardware and software..., and also introduces more specialized uses of local area networks, voice based computer communications and mainframe disk storage. In chapter 6, the role of microcomputers in data analysis is discussed. The authors present the advantages and disadvantages of conducting statistical analysis on microcomputers...
This volume... will be... helpful for introducing both undergraduate and graduate students to the use of microcomputers throughout the research process”.

Reviewer: M.Stepanova

MSC:

68-01	Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to computer science
68N99	Theory of software
62-07	Data analysis (statistics) (MSC2010)
68U99	Computing methodologies and applications

Keywords:

social sciences; microcomputer software; microcomputers; data analysis