Population Science News

Weekly News — September 23, 2019

EVENTS
Wednesday, September 25 | 12-1 p.m. Demography Brown Bag: Ben Domingue (Sociology, Stanford University) will present, “Genetics and Education: Recent Developments in the Context of an Ugly History and an Uncertain Future.”| 2232 Piedmont, Seminar Room. Refreshments and cookies served.

NEW!! We are migrating videos to a Population Sciences channel–they are easier to organize and find there and will get much more traffic than on Vimeo. The Brown Bag talks have been organized into playlists: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ycpyz9-xSJHnBP-tpkm1A/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=1&view_as=subscriber. For the moment, you can still view past brown bag presentations: http://www.vimeo.com/berkeleypopscience.

EVENTS
Wednesday, September 25 | 12-1 p.m. Demography Brown Bag: Ben Domingue (Sociology, Stanford University) will present, “Genetics and Education: Recent Developments in the Context of an Ugly History and an Uncertain Future.”| 2232 Piedmont, Seminar Room. Refreshments and cookies served.

NEW!! We are migrating videos to a Population Sciences channel–they are easier to organize and find there and will get much more traffic than on Vimeo. The Brown Bag talks have been organized into playlists: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ycpyz9-xSJHnBP-tpkm1A/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=1&view_as=subscriber. For the moment, you can still view past brown bag presentations: http://www.vimeo.com/berkeleypopscience.

Monday, September 23, 2019 • 12:30pm–1:30pm Policy Research Seminar: When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers’ Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health, With Maya Rossin-Slater (Stanford University). GSPP.

September 23 | 2-3:30 p.m. “Immigration, Science, and Invention: Evidence from the Quota Acts” 597 Evans Hall. Petra Moser, New York University. 597 Evans Hall.

Tuesday, September 24 | 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. SPH Fall 2019 Brown Bag Series: “A world without private insurance? Is that really what we want?” Terry Bayer, Health Care Consultant and Mediator Seminar | | 5101 Berkeley Way West

Wednesday, September 25 @ 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM “Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It” by Heather Boushey, PhD. CEO of Washington Center for Equitable Growth. IRLE, 2534 Channing Avenue.

Wednesday, September 25, 4:10-5:30 p.m. “Research Transparency and Reproducibility in Economics and Beyond” with Ted Miguel, UC Berkeley Economics. The seminar will discuss the publication of “Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research: How to Do Open Science”, a new textbook co-authored by Garret Christensen (US Census Bureau), Jeremy Freese (Stanford), and Miguel, as well as new approaches to combat false positives and non-reproducible findings in economics research. Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center

Thursday, September 26 | 5-7 p.m. ”Childhood Immunizations: Balancing Public Health and Civil Liberties” with a panel discussion. Berkeley Way West, First Floor Colloquia

SAVE THE DATE
October 9, 2019 | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm. “The Bargaining Power of Older Workers and the US Labor Market” with Teresa Ghilarducci, New School for Social Research. IRLE 2521 Channing Way

WORKSHOPS
International Comparisons of Healthy Aging Workshop. Hosted by the Program on the Global Demography of Aging at Harvard University April 27–28, 2020. This workshop will focus on cross-national differences in the determinants and consequences of healthy ageing. Call for Abstracts: The workshop organizers are particularly interested in studies that examine microdata from the growing family of harmonized health and retirement surveys. Abstract Submissions: Please send abstracts to Morenikeji Adebayo (madebayo@hsph.harvard.edu) by Tuesday, October 15, 2019. Prospective participants are invited to submit a 1-page abstract of their proposed papers on topics related to the following:
• The Nature of Healthy Ageing
• Determinants of Healthy Ageing (Individual, Environmental, Social, Economic, or Healthcare Systems)
• Economic and Social Consequences of Healthy Ageing
• Life Course Analysis and Effects of Early Health on Healthy Ageing
• Inequality and Healthy Ageing
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee and participants whose abstracts have been selected will be notified of their selection by November 1, 2019. Each paper on the workshop program will be assigned a discussant who must receive the completed paper no later than March 31, 2020. A special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing will be devoted to publication of submitted papers that satisfy the usual quality standards of the journal. All papers presented at the workshop are expected to be submitted to the special issue. Travel Funding: Round trip economy airfare, ground transportation, and up to three days hotel accommodation will be reimbursed for each paper’s lead presenter. Please email Morenikeji Adebayo (madebayo@hsph.harvard.edu) with any questions. This workshop is sponsored by the Program on the Global Demography of Aging at Harvard University, which is funded by the National Institute on Aging, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This workshop is institutionally co-sponsored by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Stanford University’s Asia Health Policy Program, Fudan University’s Working Group on Comparative Aging Societies, and the East-West Center.

FUNDING
NIH: Dementia Care: Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS), invites applications seeking to examine the outcomes of care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD) by identifying home- and community-based services (HCBS) used, as well as barriers to accessing these types of care and unmet needs of persons with AD/ADRD concerning care and services. Comes as an R01 and R21. See https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AG-20-037.html for detailed information about the scope.

Research on biopsychosocial factors of social connectedness and isolation on health, wellbeing, illness, and recovery (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed – there is a different R01 FOA version for experimental studies). This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) solicits research projects that seek to model the underlying mechanisms, processes, and trajectories of social relationships and how these factors affect outcomes in health, illness, recovery, and overall wellbeing.  The funding objectives cover a wide range of areas. Please see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-19-373.html for detailed information.

OPPORTUNITIES
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently issued a Federal Register Notice (FRN) seeking nominations for five members to our Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).The Bureau often faces highly technical issues while developing and maintaining the accuracy and relevancy of its data on employment and unemployment, prices, productivity, and compensation and working conditions. This Committee functions solely as an advisory body to the BLS, on technical aspects of data collection and the formulation of economic measures. The Committee consists of approximately 16 members who are appointed by the BLS and are approved by the Secretary of Labor. Members serve 3-year terms, but can be reappointed. Committee members are economists, statisticians, and behavioral scientists. They are prominent experts in their fields and recognized for their professional achievements and objectivity. The economists will have research experience with technical issues related to BLS data and will be familiar with employment and unemployment statistics, price index numbers, compensation measures, productivity measures, occupational and health statistics, or other topics relevant to BLS data series. The statisticians will be familiar with sample design, data analysis, computationally intensive statistical methods, non-sampling errors or other areas which are relevant to BLS work. The behavioral scientists will be familiar with questionnaire design, usability or other areas of survey development. The members of the panel will collectively provide a balance of expertise in all of these areas. The Committee typically meets twice a year in Washington, DC. If you or a colleague are interested we encourage you to respond by October 16th. More information about the BLS TAC can be found on the website.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Research Fellow Program. The program’s main objective is to facilitate collaboration between academic scholars and government researchers in fields such as statistics, mathematics, economics, survey methodology, behavioral science, and other related fields. Research Fellows have unique opportunities to expand their work to address some of the difficult methodological problems and analytic challenges BLS faces. Fellows are funded to conduct research at the BLS headquarters in Washington, DC, use BLS data and facilities, and work closely with BLS staff. There is more information available on our website at http://www.bls.gov/osmr/asa_nsf_bls_fellowship_info.htm or in our brochure at http://www.amstat.org/careers/pdfs/ASANSFBLSFellowshipProgram.pdf. Proposals are due January 3, 2020 with final decisions anticipated around April 15, 2020. Fellowship applicants should have a recognized research record and considerable expertise in their area of proposed research. Applicants must submit a detailed research proposal, which will be evaluated on the applicability of the research to BLS programs, the value of the proposed research to science, and the quality of the applicant’s research record. Applicants do not need to be U.S. Citizens, but they must be employed by a U.S. institution of higher learning or a non-profit institution (IRS code 501(c)(3) entity) and are expected to retain their position for the duration of the fellowship. U.S. Government employees are not eligible. We encourage interested researchers to contact us before submitting a proposal, so we can provide assistance in tailoring the proposed topic to best utilize your skills and interests in addressing BLS issues. The BLS coordinates our Research Fellow Program in cooperation with the American Statistical Association (http://www.amstat.org), under a grant from the National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/) (NSF). Please contact Daniel Yang (yang.daniel@bls.gov)

Early Career Work and Family Fellowship Program. The Work and Family Researchers Network is committed to mentoring the next generation of work and family scholars. Our Early Career Fellowship Program provides support for recent doctoral recipients to advance their research, teaching, and long-term career prospects. By offering networked resources and consultation, we help promising new scholars move into tenured appointments and secure senior-level positions, as well as engage them with the work and family community of scholars. To learn more about this fellowship, visit: https://wfrn.org/early-career-fellowship/.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
NICHD has announced its NICHD Strategic Plan 2020 (PDF 2.2 MB), which is worthwhile to peruse to see how to align your interests in research with their interests in funding.

CONFERENCES
Please consider submitting a proposal for a paper presentation at the 23rd Annual American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences conference. AABSS is sponsored this year by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) College of Liberal Arts.  The conference will be held on February 24-25, 2020 at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada with a special conference room rate of $69 per night (plus tax & fees).  The deadline for submitting a proposal is November 20th and papers will undergo juried review on a rolling basis, with prompt notifications of acceptance/rejection so that presenters can make early and economical travel arrangements. All presented papers are eligible for submission to the Journal of Behavioral & Social Sciences (www.jbssjournal.org) and all submitted papers will be peer-reviewed for potential publication. Visit the website for details at www.aabss.net

Submissions for 2020 ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco Open Soon. Please plan to join us for the 115th ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, August 8-11, 2020. The theme for 2020 is “Power, Inequality, and Resistance at Work.” The online system for paper, workshop, course, and preconference submissions will open on November 1, 2019, and close January 29, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

CALL FOR PAPERS
A special issue on “Advancements in Online and Mobile Survey Methods” in Survey Methods: Insights from the Field (https://surveyinsights.org/) sponsored by German Society for Online Research (DGOF). Guest editors: Bella Struminskaya (Utrecht University and DGOF) & Florian Keusch (University of Mannheim and DGOF). Over the past 15 years online and mobile surveys have evolved into an established data collection method in academic and applied social sciences and market research. Recent technological advancements further drive innovation and enable new measurement capabilities that potentially allow new and deeper insights into human interactions, attitudes, and behaviors. The aim of this special issue is to disseminate knowledge about the current state of online and mobile survey methods, focusing on the components of the Total Survey Error framework for cross-sectional and panel surveys as well as augmenting survey data with other data types. This special issue invites research articles of about 4,000 words. Topics on the advancement of the methodology of online and mobile surveys include, but are not limited to:
Coverage, sampling, nonresponse, measurement, adjustment, and weighting in online and mobile web surveys
Online panel quality and panel research
Survey design and survey gamification
Comparing online and mobile web surveys to traditional approaches (face to face, telephone, paper)
Use of paradata and passive measurement, including but not limited to, the research on consent and privacy
Combining self-reports from online and mobile surveys with data from other sources (e.g., passive mobile data collection through apps and sensors, social media data, administrative records)
Emergent forms of data collection, including chat-bots and survey messengers, voice recordings, photo and video upload, and others
Submissions to the special issue are welcome until 15 January 2020. Upon submission manuscripts will be peer-reviewed in accordance with standard journal practice and will be published online soon after acceptance. Timeline: January 15, 2020: Manuscript submission
April 30, 2020: Feedback from the reviewers and editors. June 30, 2020: Revisions due
July 30, 2020: Final feedback from the editors. September 15, 2020: Final draft due. October/November, 2020: Publication of the special issue.
Electronic copies of the manuscripts should be uploaded at https://surveyinsights.org following the guidelines of the Survey Methods: Insights from the Field (https://surveyinsights.org/?page_id=531). You may want to use the template of the Survey Methods: Insights from the Field (https://surveyinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SMIF-artticle-template.docx). To ensure consideration in the special issue, please check the category box “Advancements in Online and Mobile Survey Methods” on the right-hand column when creating a new article on the journal platform. Queries about this special issue should be directed to Bella Struminskaya at b.struminskaya@uu.nl. The authors submitting to this special issue are invited to submit their work to the GOR 2020 conference (paper abstracts due 15 November 2019; poster abstracts due 24 January 2020): https://www.gor.de/about/call-for-papers.html

DATA
IPUMS Health SurveysNHIS news: 2018 NHIS imputed income data are now available along with more than 100 variables from the 2018 cancer, asthma, immunization, and disability supplements.

ON THE WEB
National Academies #ReproducibilityChat. Join the National Academies on September 16 from 1 to 2 pm ET. In advance of the 9/24 symposium and 9/25-26 workshop on issues of reproducibility and replication in scientific research, the National Academies would like to hear your thoughts on ways that stakeholders can promote and encourage reproducibility in science. Read more.

GRADUATE STUDENTS
The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Opinion Research (OPN) is now accepting applications for Methodological Support Interns and Public Opinion Interns next summer. Applications are due by October 4. Additional information is below along with links to full requirements and details.
About OPN: The Office of Opinion Research supports U.S. diplomacy by providing the Secretary of State, the White House, and policymakers across the government with timely, insightful analyses of foreign public opinion. OPN’s regional and methodological experts commission public opinion surveys and focus groups around the world. We are uniquely positioned to assess the impact of public opinion on the policies and actions of foreign leaders, as well as identify opportunities and obstacles for U.S. public diplomacy and strategic communication.
Methodological Support Interns (https://openopps.usajobs.gov/internships/1436)
At the graduate level, responsibilities include: • Assisting with questionnaire design, including measurement conceptualization to address issues of concern to U.S. policymakers; • Helping develop sampling strategies for probability-based sampling in face-to-face, telephone, and mixed mode/multiple-frame surveys; • Evaluating weighting and sampling approaches for complex sample designs, including strategies to mitigate unit and item nonresponse; • Assisting with survey design (including innovative research designs for challenging environments and hard-to-reach populations); • Helping develop training curriculum for internal and external staff; • Supporting analysts with data visualizations, qualitative analysis, and/or advanced multivariable analysis of public opinion data
Public Opinion Interns (https://openopps.usajobs.gov/internships/1411)
[Graduate and undergraduate:] Analyze and report on results from foreign opinion surveys by writing clear, concise assessments and interpretive opinion analyses and delivering oral briefings; compile and analyze trend data to detect patterns and changes in foreign opinion over time; analyze relationships between public opinion and political, military, economic, and social issues in the region; and conduct all-source intelligence analysis to enrich and contextualize public opinion data.

WEBINAR
Preparing for a Career on the Alt-Ac Track.
 September 26, 2019. 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. With Brandy Simula (Emory University). Many sociologists work in non-faculty positions at colleges and universities, what is referred to as the “alt-ac track.” In this webinar, Dr. Brandy Simula will discuss the range of alt-ac careers available to sociologists, strategies for preparing for this career track, and the rewards and challenges of these careers. Drawing from her work experience as well as her research on professional identity development, Dr. Simula will help current graduate students, faculty advisors of graduate students, and sociology PhDs at any career stage understand how to prepare for and secure an alt-ac position. You will receive an email after your purchase with instructions on how to complete your registration. No charge for ASA members: http://asa.enoah.com/Store/Webinars/BKctl/ViewDetails/SKU/ASAOEWEB919.

D-LAB
The fall D-lab intensives and short courses are starting in R, Python and much much more. Be sure to check their calendar by visiting the website, dlab.berkeley.edu. D-Lab offers training, individual consulting and data services for the UC Berkeley community – faculty to undergrads.

RELATED LISTS
JOBS
All jobs and postdoctoral fellowships are posted as we receive them on the Demography Department Jobs Listserv, http://lists.demog.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/jobs. This list advertises positions of all sorts relevant for social and behavioral scientists with advanced degrees.

MIGRATION MAILING LIST
Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI.berkeley.edu) is a research center for the study of immigrants and immigration. BIMI has a mailing list (immigration_group@lists.berkeley.edu), which is where a good deal of immigration and migration announcements are posted, and only some of that material is posted on the PopSciences Weekly News.

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH MAILING LIST
Tue$day Top Tip$ for SPH Research is a listserv with research funding opportunities and other information pertinent to public health researchers who are not necessarily population researchers. To subscribe, write to Dr. Lauren Goldstein, lhg@berkeley.edu.

Posted in Newsletter.