In qualitative comparative analysis, as with all methods, there is a question about how many cases are needed to make an analysis robust. In deciding on the number of cases, a key consideration is the number of conditions to be analyzed. I suggest that adding cases is preferable to dropping conditions if there are too many conditions relative to…

A recent paper proposed an alternative weighting scheme when performing matching-adjusted indirect comparisons. This alternative approach follows the conventional one in matching the covariate means across two studies but differs in that it maximizes the effective sample size when doing so. The appendix of this paper showed, assuming there is one…

In the wake of the methodological developments that aim to render qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) "time sensitive", I propose a new procedure for carrying out QCA longitudinally. More specifically, I show first why longitudinal case disaggregation should be carried out with change-based intervals (CBIs) rather than with fixed…

In health technology assessment (HTA), population-adjusted indirect comparisons (PAICs) are increasingly considered to adjust for the difference in the target population between studies. We aim to assess the conduct and reporting of PAICs in recent HTA practice, by performing, a methodological systematic review of studies implementing PAICs from…

Meta-analysts often encounter missing covariate values when estimating meta-regression models. In practice, ad hoc approaches involving data deletion have been widely used. The current study investigates the performance of different methods for handling missing covariates in meta-regression, including complete-case analysis (CCA), shifting-case…

Factor analysis is widely utilized to identify latent factors underlying the observed variables. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative study of two widely used methods for determining the optimal number of factors in factor analysis, the K1 rule, and parallel analysis, along with a more recently developed method, the bass-ackward method.…

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is an empirical research method that has gained some popularity in the social sciences. At the same time, the literature has long been convinced that QCA is prone to committing causal fallacies when confronted with non-causal data. More specifically, beyond a certain case-to-factor ratio, the method is…

The last decades have seen an enormous growth in published research and evaluations, which makes it difficult for a researcher to stay up-to-date in their own field, let alone complement their knowledge with insights from other fields. In this paper we give an elaborate overview of a methodology that aims to tackle this task. It builds on the…

This paper argues for three aspects of tolerance with respect to QCA research: tolerance with respect to different approaches to QCA; producing QCA research with tolerance (work that is resistant to criticism); and for QCA researchers to be clear about the tolerance of the solutions they present -- especially in terms of calibration and truth…

This paper aims to explore the philosophical theoretical foundations of two basic research paradigms, namely positivism and interpretivism. In the discussion process, literature in the relevant fields including academic papers and books is reviewed and used as support for the analysis. Firstly, the paper explores the differences between the…

Single-case comparative studies could help identify efficient instructional procedures for individuals with disabilities. However, previous literature reported inconsistent efficiency results if multiple comparisons were conducted, indicating that within-participant replication was uncommon. In this review, we examined single-case comparative…

Researchers increasingly take advantage of the comparative case design to build theory, but the degree of case dependence is occasionally discussed and theorized. We suggest that the comparative case study design might be subject to an often underappreciated threat--dependence across cases--under certain conditions. Using research on innovation…

In this article, we consider the use of the zero-truncated binomial distribution as a randomization device while estimating the population proportion of a sensitive characteristic. The resultant new estimator based on the zero-truncated binomial distribution is then compared to its competitors from both the efficiency and the protection point of…

Purpose: Although grounded theory (GT) was introduced in 1967, GT remains widely misunderstood as scholars incorporate a limited spectrum of the GT techniques and fail to integrate GT's full potential into academic research. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to discuss divergences between four GT strategies and by doing so to provide…

The current review examined the prevalence of the adapted alternating treatments design (AATD) across 22 special education journals and methods to equate and assign target sets to experimental conditions in the AATD. Since the seminal description of the design in 1985, a total of 49 articles were published using the AATD across 12 of the reviewed…