Insights

Methodology briefs & research trends

Practical writing on how to do research well—method guides, publishing advice, and evidence on where fields are heading. New pieces are published regularly.

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Practical, evidence-based guides on research methods, analysis, and publication. New briefs are published regularly—subscribe via RSS.

Publication bias and the funnel plot
Meta-Analysis & Synthesis

Publication Bias and the Funnel Plot

Why unpublished null results inflate a meta-analysis, how the funnel plot detects it, and the best defence.

10 min read
Multilevel models
Panel & Longitudinal

Multilevel Models Explained: When Your Data Has Structure

What nested data is, why ignoring it breaks your standard errors, and what random effects and partial pooling do.

10 min read
Logistic regression
Econometrics & Regression

Logistic Regression Explained

Why binary outcomes need an S-curve, how to interpret odds ratios, and why an odds ratio isn’t a risk ratio.

10 min read
Regression discontinuity design
Causal Inference

Regression Discontinuity Design Explained

How a cutoff creates a near-experiment, the testable smoothness assumption, sharp vs fuzzy designs, and local effects.

10 min read
Mediation vs moderation
SEM & Psychometrics

Mediation and Moderation: What’s the Difference?

Mechanism vs condition, how each is analysed, and how they combine as moderated mediation.

10 min read
Qualitative vs quantitative research
Research Methods

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research: How to Choose

Measuring vs understanding, when to use each, how mixed methods combines them, and letting the question decide.

10 min read
How to measure research impact
Accreditation & Research Impact

How to Measure Research Impact: Metrics, Frameworks, and Limitations

The layers of impact, academic metrics and their limits, altmetrics, impact case studies, and responsible use.

11 min read
P-hacking and researcher degrees of freedom
Statistical Audit & Data

P-Hacking and Researcher Degrees of Freedom

How selecting analyses for significance manufactures false positives—and how pre-registration prevents it.

10 min read
Common method bias
Survey, Experimental & Qualitative

Common Method Bias: What It Is and How to Reduce It

What it is, where it comes from, how to design against it, and why statistical checks can’t fix it.

10 min read
Responding to peer review
Journals & Publication

How to Respond to Peer Review: A Practical Guide

Reading reviews, the point-by-point response letter, handling disagreement, and the tone that wins acceptance.

10 min read
How to evaluate a forecast
Forecasting & Time Series

How to Evaluate a Forecast: Accuracy Metrics and Out-of-Sample Testing

Out-of-sample testing, MAE/RMSE/MAPE and their trade-offs, and why you must beat a naive benchmark.

10 min read
Overfitting in machine learning
Machine Learning & Data

Overfitting in Machine Learning: What It Is and How to Avoid It

What overfitting is, why it happens, how to detect it with cross-validation, and how to prevent it.

10 min read
Heterogeneity in meta-analysis
Meta-Analysis & Synthesis

Understanding Heterogeneity in Meta-Analysis

What it is, how I-squared and tau-squared measure it, random-effects models, and when not to pool.

10 min read
Reliability and validity in measurement
SEM & Psychometrics

Reliability and Validity in Measurement

Consistency vs accuracy, the types of each, and why measurement quality must be established before analysis.

10 min read
Instrumental variables explained
Causal Inference

Instrumental Variables Explained

How an instrument recovers a causal effect, the two validity conditions, and what IV actually estimates.

11 min read
Panel vs cross-sectional data
Panel & Longitudinal

Panel Data vs Cross-Sectional Data: What’s the Difference?

The three data structures compared, and why panel data supports far more credible causal claims.

10 min read
Heteroskedasticity explained
Econometrics & Regression

Heteroskedasticity: What It Is and How to Handle It

Why it invalidates the usual standard errors (but not the coefficients), how to detect it, and the robust-SE fix.

9 min read
Multicollinearity: when is it a problem
Econometrics & Regression

Multicollinearity: When Is It a Problem?

What it affects, what it doesn’t, how to detect it with VIF, and when it actually matters.

9 min read
Regression assumptions checklist
Econometrics & Regression

Regression Assumptions: What Researchers Should Check

A practical checklist: how to test linearity, homoskedasticity, autocorrelation, collinearity, and exogeneity.

11 min read
OLS regression explained
Econometrics & Regression

OLS Regression: What Researchers Should Know

What OLS does, why it's BLUE, the assumptions that decide if results can be trusted, and what to do when they fail.

10 min read
Correlation vs regression
Econometrics & Regression

Correlation vs Regression: What’s the Difference?

What each measures, how they relate, and why neither, on its own, proves causation.

9 min read
What a statistical audit checks before submission
Statistical Audit & Data

What a Statistical Audit Checks Before Submission

An independent review of assumptions, specification, robustness, reproducibility, and reporting — before you submit.

10 min read
Designing a survey that produces valid data
Survey, Experimental & Qualitative

Designing a Survey That Produces Valid Data

Validity vs reliability, writing good questions, validated scales, representative sampling, and biases to avoid.

11 min read
Choosing the right journal for a paper
Journals & Publication

How to Choose the Right Journal for Your Paper

Why fit beats prestige, how to assess scope and audience, building a shortlist, and verifying before you submit.

11 min read
Prediction versus explanation in machine learning
Machine Learning & Data

Prediction vs Explanation: Using Machine Learning in Research

Why high accuracy is not evidence of cause, out-of-sample evaluation, and using interpretable and causal ML.

11 min read
Stationarity and unit roots in time series
Forecasting & Time Series

Making Time Series Stationary (and Why It Matters)

What stationarity is, the spurious-regression trap, unit-root testing, differencing, and cointegration.

11 min read
Systematic review and meta-analysis forest plot
Meta-Analysis & Synthesis

How to Conduct a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Protocol, systematic search, risk-of-bias, pooling, heterogeneity, and reporting to PRISMA standards.

12 min read
CB-SEM versus PLS-SEM
SEM & Psychometrics

CB-SEM vs PLS-SEM: Which Should You Use?

The real difference between covariance- and variance-based SEM, why sample size shouldn't decide it, and how to choose.

11 min read
Difference-in-differences treated and control groups
Causal Inference

Difference-in-Differences Explained

How it estimates causal effects, the parallel-trends assumption, and why staggered adoption needs modern estimators.

11 min read
Endogeneity and instrumental variables
Econometrics & Regression

Understanding Endogeneity and How to Address It

What it means, its three sources, and how to address it with controls, fixed effects, instruments, and design.

11 min read
Fixed effects versus random effects for panel data
Panel & Longitudinal

Fixed Effects vs Random Effects: Which Should You Use?

What each does, the assumption that separates them, the limits of the Hausman test, and how to choose.

11 min read
Diagram showing research impact rising from outputs to outcomes to impact for AACSB and EQUIS
Accreditation & Research Impact

How Business Schools Can Evidence Research Impact for AACSB & EQUIS Accreditation

What the 2026 standards ask for, the outputs-outcomes-impact distinction, and how to build a credible evidence base.

11 min read
Diagram showing a research question leading to the right statistical method
Research Methods

How to Choose the Right Statistical Method for Your Research Question

A decision framework: start from the claim, match it to your data, and account for what your field expects.

10 min read

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