This paper investigates the methodological discrepancies underlying the measurement of adult learning and education (ALE) participation in the UK by focusing on four major surveys -- APiL, PIAAC, AES, and LFS. Grounded in the Total Survey Error (TSE) framework, we systematically examined the surveys' documentation and compared their definitions,…

RobotReviewer is a tool for automatically assessing the risk of bias in randomized controlled trials, but there is limited evidence of its reliability. We evaluated the agreement between RobotReviewer and humans regarding the risk of bias assessment based on 1955 randomized controlled trials. The risk of bias in these trials was assessed via two…

Although parallel analysis has been found to be an accurate method for determining the number of factors in many conditions with complete data, its application under missing data is limited. The existing literature recommends that, after using an appropriate multiple imputation method, researchers either apply parallel analysis to every imputed…

Outside of education, many academic disciplines developed and promulgated checklists to evaluate the quality of qualitative studies. This article used an embedded mixed methods approach in three stages: development of a conceptual framework reviewing 62 guidelines; a content analysis of key areas of the guidelines; and review of dissertations to…

The historical turn in social science has prompted scholars to engage with the work of historians on a large scale. Here, social scientists face two standard problems of selection bias: confirmation bias and convenience sampling. So far, the record of dealing with these problems has been poor, and little has been done to specify how social…

In this article, we examine whether cross-national studies disclose enough information for independent researchers to evaluate the validity and reliability of the findings (evaluation transparency) or to perform a direct replication (replicability transparency). The first contribution is theoretical. We develop a heuristic theoretical model…

Periodic changes in occupational classifications make it difficult to obtain consistent measures of social class over time, potentially jeopardizing research on class-based trends. The severity of this problem depends, in part, on the measurement strategies used to address those changes. The authors propose that when a sample has been coded partly…

Multilevel modeling (MLM) is a statistical technique for analyzing clustered data. Despite its long history, the technique and accompanying computer programs are rapidly evolving. Given the complexity of multilevel models, it is crucial for researchers to provide complete and transparent descriptions of the data, statistical analyses, and results.…

In studies of educational achievement, students' self-reported number of books in the family home is a frequently used proxy for social, cultural, and economic background. Absent hard evidence about what this variable captures or how well, its use has been motivated by strong associations with student outcomes. I show that these associations rest…