Quantitative Reasoning About Duggan's Article Essay

Quantitative Reasoning About Duggan's Article - Essay Example   Duggan et al do not comprehensively describe study design they adopted to test the stated hypothesis. The researchers do not also describe sampling method they adopted in the study. According to Lohr (2009), the success of a research in achieving study objectives depend on research design adopted. Findings of Duggan et al are, therefore, questionable. In other words, the study possibly had certain prejudices. Research biases, also known as systematic errors, distort reproducibility of a study. In particular, the study of Duggan et al was associated with selection biases and measurement biases. Selection biases occur when an unrepresentative sample is used in a study. Because sampling method is not clearly explained in the study, there is a high likelihood that a no randomized sample was used. There is a possibility of measurement bias because no clear model is used to gun-related crimes and location and time of a gun show. In addition, statistical testing procedures are not clear ly discussed.Data Analysis procedures and Ethical ConcernsTo test the hypothesis, Duggan et al computed the correlation coefficient between the rate of guns and magazines sale and gun shows. The procedure yielded a perfect strong correlation. The researchers, however, assumed a linear and direct relationship between the sale of guns or magazines and gun-related crimes. As a statistical procedure, Duggan et al arrived at a conclusion based on the outcome of correlation computations.