Posted on Friday, December 15, 2006
Dr. Sandra Webster, Westminster College professor of psychology, had her textbook, "Hand in Hand: Research Design and Statistics in Behavioral Science," published by Atomic Dog Publishing.
Webster's text book is different from others because it integrates research design and statistics using APA writing style throughout the book.
"Trying to understand research design without statistics is like trying to get a joke without the punch line," Webster said. "Trying to learn statistics without research design is like having the punch line without the rest of the joke, very confusing but not very funny."
"I wrote the first version of this text book while I was a Fulbright lecturer in Nigeria in 1990," Webster said. "I teach a course at Westminster that integrates research design and statistics and at that time there were no books available that put the two together. Students had to buy one research design book and one statistics book, and I was dissatisfied with that. Africa was experiencing a book famine' at the time, so I wrote a short version for my students in Nigeria.
"When I came home, I continued to use it with my students at Westminster and added to it each year," Webster continued. "My students had only to pay for duplicating."
As the college's electronic resources expanded, Webster moved her text to an all-electronic format, which spawned Open Mind, a new electronic publisher, to buy her book for their online catalog in 2000.
"I was able to use that version with my psychology students in South Korea during my second Fulbright lectureship," Webster said. "Open Mind had a very brief existence. Because I do not want to profit from my own students, the small amount of royalties that I received from Open Mind went to starting the Psychology Department award for service that's given in honor of David Gray's longstanding contributions to service, the David B. Gray Social Action Award."
When Open Mind went under they were bought out by another textbook publisher, Atomic Dog.
"I convinced them that it was time for a thorough revision of the text because the American Psychology Association had revised its ethical standards, its publication guidelines, and a new statistical procedure, magnitude of effect, was gaining importance," Webster said. "They put the first version out for review to seven faculty members who teach courses appropriate for the book. I benefited from their comments and suggestions. By the time I was done with the revisions in 2003, the book was completely different&then nothing happened for a long time.
"It turns out that my editor moved to a different job and Atomic Dog had lost track of my manuscript. Once it got back on track, we went through editing and all the things that need to be done, and then Atomic Dog was bought out by Thomson Publishing last spring," Webster explained. "It was amazing how much faster the process became. I finished the proofing and Margaret Gittis wrote the teacher's manual. Then in early November I received an e-mail that Thomson was planning to sell its education publishing arm. So when the actual published copy came to me in the mail in mid-November, I was very pleased."
Webster, who is also the faculty development officer, has been with Westminster College since 1983. She earned her undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Contact Webster at (724) 946-7359 or e-mail websters@westminster.edu for more information.
