Category Archives: General

Davies’ Law

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

Davies’ Law: “As a discussion about scientific rigour continues, the probability of someone mentioning Andrew Wakefield’s MMR study approaches 1”.  A friend of a friend (I love Facebook right now) proposed this today as a variation on Godwin’s Law.  Godwin’s … Continue reading →

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Inequality and volunteering – half-formed thought

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

I’ve just been next door talking to Anjelica Finnegan about philanthropy in the US.  The new NCVO Almanac (p.14) shows a nice bubble chart illustrating how much people in different countries give to charity (as a percentage of GDP). Americans give … Continue reading →

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Volunteering as therapy

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

Volunteering is (extremely) broadly defined in academia.  There are articles discussing volunteering as service, volunteering as serious leisure, volunteering as activism, volunteering at work, volunteering as a pathway into work, volunteering in as many domains as you can think of…  But nothing (caveat: … Continue reading →

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A Gini coefficient for volunteering?

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

The Gini coefficient is used to measure income inequality.   It struck me on my way in that it would be great to have something like that for volunteering.  Bear with me…  John Mohan has used a concept called the “civic core” … Continue reading →

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What kind of day has it been?

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

Please excuse the shameless West Wing quote in the title…  It occurs to me that I haven’t really written much about my project and maybe I should remedy that.  I’m going to write a three papers thesis (rather than the traditional … Continue reading →

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Time-varying covariates III

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

A thought occurs.  Longitudinal data allows change to be studied within individuals was well as within populations.  This is ‘a good thing’.  You can look at whether a training programme affected an individual’s employment status, for example.  Or whether breakfast … Continue reading →

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Founding the Confounding Factor

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Vicki Bolton

What is a confounding factor? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, confounding is “destroying, confusing, perplexing, amazing, etc”.  In statistics, a confounding factor or variable worms its way between your carefully chosen cause and effect, making a nonsense of your research … Continue reading →

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