The search for necessary and sufficient causes of some outcome of interest, referred to as "configurational comparative research," has long been one of the main preoccupations of evaluation scholars and practitioners. However, only the last three decades have witnessed the evolution of a set of formal methods that are sufficiently…

In the past two decades, numerous meta-analyses have been published that examine the question of psychotherapy equivalence. Hunsley and Di Giulio (2002) critically reviewed this literature and concluded that there was abundant evidence that the Dodo bird verdict of equivalence across psychotherapies is false. In this article, we summarize and…

This report critically examines studies of how scientific research drives innovation which is then translated into socio-economic benefits. It focuses on research evaluation insights that are relevant not only to the academic community, but also to policymakers and evaluation practitioners--and particularly to biomedical and health research…

The structure and process of college institutional research is compared with three different ways in which science is conceptualized. It is concluded that, although institutional research has much in common with science, it is distinct because the dynamic nature of institutional research prevents development of a cohesive body of knowledge.…

This article familiarizes counseling psychologists with qualitative research methods in psychology developed in the tradition of European phenomenology. A brief history includes some of Edmund Husserl's basic methods and concepts, the adoption of existential-phenomenology among psychologists, and the development and formalization of qualitative…

The findings of epistemological beliefs studies in North America, Hong Kong and Taiwan were compared and interpreted in terms of the different cultural contexts and methodologies used in the research studies. Based on cross culture analysis a hypothesis for the structure of epistemological beliefs was proposed. Implications were also drawn for…

Describes the general methodology of time and motion studies and reports the results of a study which used this methodology to compare digitization of images in a microcomputer environment with storage of images on microforms. (CLB)

Describes a study conducted in southeastern Washington to determine public opinion regarding several educational options. Compares study results obtained through structured interviews with adult residents at a randomly selected sample of households with results obtained by mailing questionnaires to all remaining households in the area. (AYC)

Describes a study which examined (1) the percentage of personal and corporate name authority records in the Library of Congress authority file that do not contain any references, and (2) the percentage of references present on existing authority records that are not needed in an automatic right hand truncation, keyword searching environment. (CLB)

Organizes, describes, and evaluates management information systems research from 1981 to 1985 to provide an understanding of what constitutes management information systems research and to indicate areas for future research. (210 references) (Author/CLB)

Institutional comparison groups can be selected in several ways, depending on the comparison issue. The method chosen involves both technical and political considerations. (Author/MSE)

An exploratory study of six undergraduates under laboratory conditions aimed to clarify the role of explicit teaching of different kinds of second-language grammar rules. In this look at methodology, one hypothesis was supported: that explicit and deductive learning is better than implicit for simple categorical rules. (Contains 24 references.)…

Policy analysis in higher education is distinct from but is informed by and can contribute to both institutional research and institutional planning. Policy analysis extends beyond data analysis, using many qualitative research methods and a degree of intuition, and focuses on specific issues, not systems as does planning. (MSE)

When names of 24,000 children from migrant education censuses were cross-referenced with abuse registries, it was found that migrant children were significantly more likely to be maltreated than other children, although incidence rates varied from state to state. The paper emphasizes research methodology, access to central registers, and…

The role of law in social issues is reviewed in terms of the selection of research topics and the advantages and disadvantages of various methodologies used in both descriptive and inferential studies. (MSE)