Links

Some Useful Resources for Academic Writing:

• For reviewing the literature,

  • Connected Papers is extremely useful. Search for a key paper in your field and find out what texts are similar to this text, based on co-citation and bibliographic coupling (but not direct citation) - and repeat if you wish for newly found papers.

  • Equally valuable is ResearchRabbit - finding literature is so much easier with these tools!

• For writing the darn paper,

  • Computer scientist Jari Saramäki's "self-help series on writing papers for PhD students" is engaging and helpful; found on his blog "It's Complex". The blog posts were a precursor of his witty book "How to Write a Scientific Paper: An Academic Self-Help Guide for PhD Students" (2018).

  • Here's a tweet by @MeanestTA that explains very clearly how to structure a paper

  • This blog post gives excellent advice: Say it once, say it right: Seven strategies to improve academic writing (by Patrick Dunleavy)

  • Helen Sword's books "Stylish Academic Writing", "the Writer's Diet", and "Air & Light & Time & Space".

• And for writing an abstract:

  • How to construct a Nature summary paragraph (not only useful for Nature...)

• For ethnographic writing, I recommend two books,

  • "From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies that Everybody can Read" (Kristen Ghodsee, 2016, University of Chicago Press)

  • "Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov" (Kirin Narayan, 2012, University of Chicago Press)

  • And some resources here and here

• Before you submit your paper,

  • check Mirya Holman's pre-submission checklist (and make your own version adapted to yourself).

• Recognize a biased list of references:

  • Jane Sumner's Gender Balance Assessment Tool helps you estimate the percentage of texts by female authors, which can help you see if your articles or syllabi need a better representation. It´s also a good way to become conscious of imbalances - and expand that consciousness to other forms (racial!) of imbalances

• Need suggestions for journals for your paper?

  • Journal finder tools can give you some idea, e.g., Journal Guide, Elsevier´s Journal Finder, and JANE. Also, think of the literature you cite in your own work - does a journal repeatedly show up in your reference list? Maybe that's a good pick for your paper.

• Wiley's page about "search engine optimization" gives useful tips for improving the visibility of your research by paying attention to your title, keywords, and abstract.

• Is it your turn to review for an academic journal?

  • How to write an effective referee report and improve the scientific review process (Jonathan Berk, Campbell Harvey, and David Hirshleifer)

• If you are not a native speaker, you may find the following resources helpful

  • Grammarly (the premium version).

  • A good thesaurus like Power Thesaurus can help you diversify your writing - really, who can do without it?

  • The academic phrase bank of Manchester University to get you going.

Statistical Data about Spain and Catalonia:

• Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS; Center for Sociological Research, Madrid)

• Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE; Spanish Statistical Office, Madrid)

• Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya (IDESCAT; Catalan Statistical Office, Barcelona)

Software for Personal Network Research:

• EgoNet - for the collection and visualization of personal network data

• EgoNet2GraphML - software to convert EgoNet interviews into GraphML files

• Network Canvas - a touch-optimized framework for personal network analysis, very attractive interface and flexible modules

• GENSI - a graphical interface to collect ego-centered network data in surveys (see this article for more information)

• Vennmaker - a tool to map personal networks interactively

• EgoWeb2.0 - a data collection tool for social network data

• egor - tools for importing, analyzing, and visualizing ego-centered network data (R environment)

• statnet - for the statistical analysis, simulation, and visualization of social network data (R environment)

• RSiena - for the statistical analysis of longitudinal social network data and of the coevolution of networks and behavior (R environment)

• visone - for the analysis and visualization of social network data. For the visualization of clustered graphs please follow this link, by Jürgen Lerner

• Gephi - visualization of social network data

• Urban Network Analysis Toolbox for ArcGIS - visualization tool for urban network analysis

Network Scale-Up Method (NSUM):

• A useful list of publications, resources, and datasets (until 2014), compiled by H. Russell Bernard

• NSUM package using a Bayesian framework for population group size estimation using the Network Scale-Up Method (R environment)

Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS):

• The website Respondent Driven Sampling, developed by Douglas Heckathorn gives loads of references

• Package RDS for estimation of data collected with Respondent Driven Sampling, including Heckathorn's RDS-I and RDS-II estimators as well as Gile's Sequential Sampling estimator (R environment)

Kinship Networks:

• PUCK - a program for the use and computation of kinship data

• kinsources - a collaborative platform for sharing kinship data

• pajek - analysis and visualization of large networks (including genealogies)

• The website of anthropologist Douglas White is a true resource for researchers interested in the quantitative analysis of marriage and kinship systems

Network Visualizations:

• network visualization - fun with links, nodes, and edges (FlowingData)

• visual complexity - online archive of visualizations of all sorts of networks

• moviegalaxies - visualization of social relationships in your favorite movies

The Social Networks Community:

• International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) - the professional association for researchers interested in social network analysis. It organizes the annual Sunbelt conference, endorses regional conferences such as the EUSN, and supports a number of academic journals in the area of social networks

• The Network Science Society (NetSci).

• The blog Redes-Sociales.net - associated with the Revista Redes, the listserv Redes, and the Twitter account Lista Redes - for the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking networks community

• The podcast Tejiendo Redes - Knitting Networks, organized by Francisca Ortiz and Alejandro Espinosa-Rada

Migration:

• The European Network of International Migration, Integration, and Social Cohesion (IMISCOE)

• Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX 2015) - a useful tool that summarizes and compares integration policies in 38 countries

• I-map - Interactive Map on Migration

• Maps of global human migration routes (National Geographic)

• Interview with anthropologist Jason de Léon (author of "The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail", 2015, University of California Press) about the Mexican-US migration route (National Geographic)

• Infographics of migration flows (up till 2010) - the interactive site peoplemovin (based on Bilateral Migration Matrix from the Worldbank of 2010) and global international migration flows (dynamic, 1990-2010)

• To raise awareness: https://www.migrationtrail.com

• To raise awareness: Individual migration trajectories, visualized in a(n interactive) line https://www.storiesbehindaline.com/. By visual and information designer Federica Fragapane

Poverty, Inequality, and Social Exclusion:

• America´s poverty course (free), developed by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, is a true resource for understanding social science thinking about inequality

• OECD data on income inequality and poverty

• The British website "Poverty and Social Exclusion" offers an explanation of definitions and measurement methods of poverty, life stories, and other resources useful for teaching about poverty

• Website of the European Anti-Poverty Network

• Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the UK

• The Foundation FOESSA in Spain (Fomento de Estudios Sociales y de Sociología Aplicada)