John McInnes,​ An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics (Sage 2017)

[John F Hall]

I am working my way through a review copy of: John McInnes An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics (Sage, 2017) First impressions are that MacInnes is of like mind with me in a) using real data for teaching, b) in stressing the use of SPSS syntax and c) insisting on very high standards of record keeping and documentation. I feel the book and my own tutorials are mutually complementary, at least for basic data handling and analysis. It echoes the pedagogical approach followed in my teach-yourself course Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS) which is much more detailed on basic SPSS syntax and has greater emphasis on percentages in contingency tables. His more advanced statistical modelling is perhaps above the immediate scope of my own course and its target audience, but I expect to use the book extensively in future tutorials. This is very much a first edition and as such bears signs of having to meet a tight publication deadline. Some small SPSS syntax errors on the companion website have already been reported to Sage and will hopefully have been corrected by now. On the website, the video tutorials for chapter 4 are all on the same page and can be confusing to navigate, but warrant repeated watching, if only to catch John's gentle Scottish mutterings and asides as he navigates and edits his SPSS files. Also on the companion website is a practice dataset ESS6_Practice.sav (an SPSS saved file with variables extracted from the 2012 European Social Survey Round 6 ) and a plain text file Syntax_Ch4.sav.txt (the links to the data-set and plain text file are both on the same page). The text file contains a substantial (and quite cluttered) set of SPSS syntax commands for all 12 exercises in chapter 4. Downloading and copying the plain text from this file to an SPSS *.sps syntax file is particularly fraught. Even an experienced SPSS user like me can have difficulty navigating the companion website and its contents. Accordingly, on my page MacInnes (2017) I have prepared a set of what I hope will be helpful (draft) guides for teachers, researchers and students, especially beginners and SPSS newbies, enabling them more easily to access and use the companion website. Macinnes 1 Aide-mémoire for easier navigation of companion website Macinnes 2 Downloading the European Social Survey Practice File MacInnes 3 Downloading the SPSS syntax for Chapter 4 Further chapter commentaries will be posted as and when they are completed. The teachers among you are all busy with assessment, but, if you plan to use the book in your teaching, you may find the guides helpful in preparing your classes for the coming academic year. John F Hall [Retired academic survey researcher] Website: Journeys in Survey Research Course: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS) Research: <a href="http://">Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)