Analyzing Data in RDS
Lisa Grazina Johnston, Renee Luthra · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2014
This chapter reviews how to analyze data gathered using RDS. We begin by reviewing why RDS data cannot be analyzed with general statistical software, and suggest several alternative software options designed for RDS data analysis. We briefly review the different estimators currently in use, and the estimation of variance in RDS analysis. We discuss potential sources of bias in RDS data, including seed dependence, homophily, differential recruitment, and bottlenecks, describing how to diagnose these problems during analysis. In addition, we describe the common practice of exporting weights for multivariate analysis using RDS data. Finally, we discuss the responsible reporting of results from RDS data analysis and provide examples of the use of RDS data to impact policy. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.