Quantitative research

“ Now it happens that a great many investigations in descriptive sociology do not as yet admit of the introduction of exact statistical—that is, arithmetical—inquiries which, nevertheless, do admit the use of algebraically quantitative methods. ”

“ The necessity of qualitative measurement of statements not only per se, but with reference to the sources from which they are drawn, is generally recognized: but historians as yet seldom heed the twin requirement of quantitative measurement of our data in comparison with the sources whence they come. ”

“ The prevailing unfamiliarity with statistical methods may also favor a skepticism as to their proper application to education, since it is not an exact science. But the fact remains established that it is always possible to measure qualitative differences if stated in terms of their quantitative amounts. ”

“ And yet, were we to take members of the Mathematical Society, who, having severally devoted themselves to the laws of quantitative relations, know that, simple as these are intrinsically, a life's study is required for the full comprehension of them—were we to ask each of these his opinion on some point of social policy, the readiness with which he answered would seem to imply that in these cases, where the factors of the phenomenon are so numerous and so much involved, a general survey of men and things gives data for trustworthy judgment. ”

“ Statistical facts are usually numerical or quantitative in character, so that, if many causal agencies are in operation at the same time, their effects are simply added together algebraically, and are inextricably merged into a general total. ”

“ Moreover it is to be remarked that while, on the one hand, we can discover the laws of the greater proportion of phenomena only by investigating them quantitatively; on the other hand we can extend the range of our quantitative previsions only as fast as we detect the laws of the results we predict. For clearly the ability to specify the magnitude of a result inaccessible to direct measurement, implies knowledge of its mode of dependence on something which can be measured—implies that we know the particular fact dealt with to be an instance of some more general fact. ”

“ Thus the extent to which our quantitative previsions have been carried in any direction, indicates the depth to which our knowledge reaches in that direction. And here, as another aspect of the same fact, it may be observed that as we pass from qualitative to quantitative prevision, we pass from inductive science to deductive science. Science while purely inductive is purely qualitative; when inaccurately quantitative it usually consists of part induction, part deduction ”

“ He defines the statistical science as “die systematische Darlegung and Erdrterung der thatsächlichen Vorgänge and der aus diesen sich ergebenden Gesetze des gesellschaftlichen menschlichen Lebens auf Grundlage quantitativer Massenbeobachtungen” (the systematic statement and explanation of actual events, and of the laws of man's social life that may be deduced from these, on the basis of the quantitative observation of aggregates) . ”

“ The application of quantitative methods to the study of mental functions as thus defined, quickly revealed the fact that human beings, sampled at random, in large numbers, do not fall into distinct types. ”

“ A preliminary qualitative examination is generally indispensable, if intelligent and proper provisions are to be made for the separation of the various constituents under such conditions as will insure accurate quantitative estimations. ”

“ During development, it should be recognized that appropriate, statistically designed experiments will optimize the amount of information obtained. Therefore, consultation with a statistician about appropriately designed experiments will be of value during this phase of the research. ”

“ However desirable the purely quantitative experimental methods may be, they naturally need always to be preceded by the qualitative studies of direct observations. Inevitably there will be numberless errors, apparent and real inconsistencies and contradictions, and ideas that will have to be discarded. ”

“ Such statistics while convenient and fashionable, and assuredly not without interest, have a purely quantitative basis—such is the way of statistics—and of themselves do not reveal a vital cultural development. ”

“ But, while this pamphlet is of inestimable value from a practical point of view, and ought to be scattered by millions in Europe, it is no less interesting and important as a contribution of data to political philosophy. The highest form of science is quantitative. We must not only know the fact, but measure it, that is, know it exactly. Until this is done, principles cannot be deduced so as to serve for valuable guidance. Careful statistics are quantitative data for sound social reasoning. ”

“ Hence, if several different quantitative effects are known to enter into any investigation, we must have at least as many distinct observations as there are quantities to be determined. Every complete experiment will therefore consist in general of several operations. ”

“ It is true that statistical research can be called a scientific method of determining facts, and for studying various phenomena from which laws relating to life, production, distribution, consumption, etc., can be drawn ”

“ Whence it appears not only that in proportion as knowledge becomes quantitative do its previsions become complete as well as certain, but that until its assumption of a quantitative character it is necessarily confined to the most elementary relations. ”

“ The quantitative basis of scientific procedure. Science is science, some scientists insist, in so far as it is mathematical. That is, in the precise determination of facts, and in their repetition with a view to their exact determination, quantities must be known. ”

“ As science has been developed, the domain of quantity has everywhere encroached on that of quality, till the process of scientific inquiry seems to have become simply the measurement and registration of quantities, combined with a mathematical discussion of the numbers thus obtained. It is this scientific method of directing our attention to those features of phenomena which may be regarded as quantities which brings physical research under the influence of mathematical reasoning. ”

“ So soon, however, as a result is known to be discoverable, the scientific man ought to proceed to the quantitative inquiry, how great a result follows from a certain amount of the conditions which are supposed to constitute the cause? The possible numbers of experiments are now infinitely great, for every variation in a quantitative condition will usually produce a variation in the amount of the effect. The method of variation which thus arises is no narrow or special method, but it is the general application of experiment to phenomena capable of continuous variation. ”

“ Somewhat generalized statistics are used as a means of gaining perspective. No effort has been made for detailed accuracy or for completeness. So far as possible the quantitative features are expressed in general proportions, and where specific figures are given they are meant to indicate only such general proportions. ”

“ There is an interesting class of experiments which enable us to observe a number of quantitative results in one act. Generally speaking, each experiment yields us but one number, and before we can approach the real processes of reasoning we must laboriously repeat measurement after measurement, until we can lay out a curve of the variation of one quantity as depending on another. We can sometimes abbreviate this labour, by making a quantity vary in different parts of the same apparatus through every required amount. ”

“ Is there not too much emphasis laid by many professors in charge of research students on the mere accumulation of observational, statistical, or experimental facts, with too little attention to that side of science which concerns itself with those analytical and synthetic processes that convert facts into valuable ideas? ”

“ It is not possible to analyze very many substances during any college course in quantitative analysis. The wise teacher will choose the substances to be analyzed so as to keep up the interest of the student and yet at the same time give him examples of all the fundamental cases that are commonly met in the practice of analytical work. A careful, painstaking, intelligent worker should be the result of the course in quantitative analysis. ”

“ Economic statistics, comprehending the quantities of commodities produced, existing, exchanged and consumed, constitute another extensive body of science. In the progress of time exact investigation may possibly subdue regions of phenomena which at present defy all scientific treatment. That scientific method can ever exhaust the phenomena of the human mind is incredible. ”

“ There is much data of such nature that we still need and for which our research men are diligently seeking. With the results of their work we shall every year be able to have a better understanding of current conditions. ”

“ Every article on statistics requires at least one caveat. Here is ours: we refer in this article to “science” as a convenient shorthand for investigations using data to study questions of interest. This includes social science, engineering, digital humanities, finance, and so on. Statisticians are not shy about reminding administrators that statistical science has an impact on nearly every part of almost all organizations. ”

“ Research in academia is supposed to be based on the works of a previous researchers who arrived at hypothesis based on data obtained by strictly following scientific methodology. "Scientific" data requires control groups, matched populations, statistical analysis, etc. ”

“ A central and common task for us as research investigators is to decipher what our data are able to say about the problems we are trying to solve. Statistics is a language constructed to assist this process, with probability as its grammar. While rudimentary conversations are possible without good command of the language (and are conducted routinely) , principled statistical analysis is critical in grappling with many subtle phenomena to ensure that nothing serious will be lost in translation and to increase the likelihood that your research findings will stand the test of time. ”

“ Given the abundance of data, research on research (i.e., meta-research) can derive empirical estimates of the prevalence of risk factors for high false-positive rates (underpowered studies; small effect sizes; low pre-study odds; flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, analyses; biases and conflicts of interest; bandwagon patterns; and lack of collaboration) [3] . Currently, an estimated 85% of research resources are wasted [5] .
Effective Interventions
We need effective interventions to improve the credibility and efficiency of scientific investigation. ”

“ What gives to the statistical method its greatest scope and power is, that its evidence and proof of law applies indiscriminately to what we call physical, biological, and ethical products of society, these various effects acting and reacting on one another. ”

“ If, therefore, it be profoundly interesting to contemplate, arrange, and study the multitude of agencies which impel this innumerable caravan of pilgrims toward their destination, it is almost equally instructive to analyze the manifold causes which have contributed to their assembling together. Such particulars, when massed into statistics, become of acknowledged importance to medical and social science. ”

“ The cultivation of statistics must be the source of all future improvement in the science of political economy, because it is to the table of the statistician that the economist must look for his facts ”

“ The statistician is primarily the man of facts, not merely a recorder of facts, but one upon whom is laid the duty of their orderly arrangement, their exposition and scientific coordination. Our author inferentially recognizes these functions by mapping out a general work to bear the title of the science of the statistics. Herein will be arranged the principal contents of statistical knowledge, in two separate volumes, the one having particular reference to the needs of sociology, the other of economics. ”

“ So, too, we have made conquests, as I have stated already, in sanitary engineering. There is material for study. We have made great advances in the study of vital statistics—there is another object of study. I think that this objection, feeble as it is at present, should rapidly become more feeble as science advances, and it can have but little weight among thoughtful men. ”

“ Why should the fact of their employment in sociology be considered as authorizing the classification of the phenomena thus dealt with to form a new science ?
The most effective argument put forward by the advocates of this view is the assertion that statistics are merely a convenient aid to investigation in the majority of sciences, but are the sole method of inquiry in the case of sociology. When, indeed, it is tested by reference to the important class of social facts which are named economic, it becomes obvious that the argument breaks down. ”

“ We developed our list of rules with researchers in mind: researchers having some knowledge of statistics, possibly with one or more statisticians available in their building, or possibly with a healthy do-it-yourself attitude and a handful of statistical packages on their laptops. ”

“ Through the early modern scientific period there runs an increasingly free and frequent recourse to statistical argument,—in the material sciences a recourse to punctilious measurement, enumeration and instruments of precision ”