Data Analytics Module
Lecturer: Hans van der Zwan
Research wk 01
Topic: graphical data analysis/ visualization
A commonly used design for a research paper:
If the study is a case study for an organization, write a management summary. If the study is an academic research, write an abstract. In both cases it should be short and to the point: introduce the subject and why it is interesting, mention the main research question, describe the methodology, the main findinggs and recommendations.
The introduction chapter introduces the subject and makes clear why it is an interesting topic. If the research is performed for an organization, start with describing the organization and make clear why the topic is of interest for this organization.
Describe the objectives for this research, the main research question and the sub questions. One paragraph gives a brief introduction to the main literature about the topic.
The literature review chapter gives an overview of the state of the art academic literature about the research topic. The focus lies on literature which is directly related to the research topic, objectives and research question. The literature study guides the researcher in the choices of the research methodology, which is described in the Methodology chapter. In general the researcher studied far mor literature than he/ she describes in the Literature Review chapter. It is one of the pitfalls to describe to much.
The methodologgy chapter is probably the most important chapter. The research question says what the researcher wants to know. The metholdology is about how the research questions are answered.
Topics about research design, operationalization of more or less abstract terms, the way in which data is collected, statistical techniques used etc. are discussed. Besides that attention is paid to reliability and validity issues. Choices made in this chapter are based on findings from the literature review.
The field work chapter describes the results from the fieldwork leading to the answers on the emperical sub questions.
In the final part the conclusions from the researched are put together, especially the answer on the main question. NO new information from the research is added here. The chapter ends with recommendations, based on the research results, for the company for wich the research is performed and/ or for further research. Recommendations can be seen as applying the research results in the context of the research field.
Research topic: comparing the effects of the covid-19 pandemic in The Netherlands and Belgium.
Research question: what are the possible causes for the difference in mortality caused by the covid-19 pandemic in The Netherlands and Belgium?
Sub questions:
RQ1 Which factors are identified in the literature that effect the mortality figures caused by an epidemic caused by a virus infection?
RQ2 How is mortality caused by the covid-19 pandemic measured in the published figures in The Netherlands and in Belgium?
RQ3 How can mortality from covid-19 be measured so that figures from different countries are comparable?
RQ4 Does the mortality from covid-19 in the Netherlands differ from that in Belgium?
This assignment focusses on RQ4 for the time period March to Auggust 2020.
Data needed for this assignment can be found here.
Assignment 1-1
To create the requested graphs, some data preparation needs to be done.
Briefly comment on each graph indicating what stands out in the graph.
(1) Create graphs to visualize the published mortality by covid-19 figures in The Netherlands and Belgium in separate graphs.
(2) To compare the two countries, first add a variable: deaths_per10K, number of deaths by covid-19 per 10,000 inhabitants.
Create a graph in which the number of covid-19 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants between the two countries is compared over the chosen time period.
(3) Create a graph in which the cumulative number of covid-19 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants between the two countries is compared over the chosen time period.