Research designs that include planned missing data are gaining popularity in applied education research. These methods have traditionally relied on introducing missingness into data collections using the missing completely at random (MCAR) mechanism. This study assesses whether planned missingness can also be implemented when data are instead…

This article examines how rigour is achieved in the Abductive Research Strategy (ARS). It begins with a review of some of the arguments about objectivity and rigour in social sciences, which shows that quantitative and qualitative researchers hold different meanings of objectivity and therefore different ways of achieving rigour in their research.…

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…

A wide variety of methodological choices and situations can affect the quality of peer nomination measurements but have not received adequate study. This article begins by focusing on systematic nominator missingness as an example of one such situation. We reanalyzed findings from a recent study by Bukowski, Dirks, Commisso, Velàsquez, and Lopez…

Common method variance refers to the amount of uncontrolled systematic error leading to biased estimates of scale reliability and validity and to spurious covariance shared among variables due to common method and/or common source employed in survey-based researches. As the extended use of self-report questionnaires is inevitable, numerous studies…

This article reviews the methodologies used in 76 empirical studies conducted on creative thinking in primary school education and published between 2011 and 2021. The studies were analysed for their context, foci of investigation and the methodologies used. Each study was coded and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings are…

Criteria are briefly proposed for final conclusions, research problems, and research hypotheses in quantitative research. Moreover, based on a proposed definition of applied and basic/general research, it is argued that (1) in applied quantitative research, while research problems are necessary, research hypotheses are unjustified, and that (2) in…

Background: In Malaysia, the mortality from melioidosis infection was reported to be higher than in other infectious diseases. The research on melioidosis is still limited in Malaysia but slightly increasing. Objectives: The objective of the study was to give an overview of the study designs, statistical methods, and comparison of research in…

This study aims to address a gap in the social and behavioral sciences literature concerning interaction effects between latent factors in multiple-group analysis. By comparing two approaches for estimating latent interactions within multiple-group analysis frameworks using simulation studies and empirical data, we assess their relative merits.…

The authors of this article present arguments for why and how qualitative research should be used in economic education. These arguments recognize the nature of economics as a discipline and economics educators' current expertise and preferences. The authors have five goals: (i) clarifying how and why the use of qualitative research in economic…

The paradigm on which a methodological approach is developed determines the situations in which its application will be most appropriate. The quantitative approach implies a positivist paradigm, the basis of which is cause-and-effect relationships, as well as the questioning and verifying of existing theories. Positivism aims to prove that…

Meta-analytic models for dependent effect sizes have grown increasingly sophisticated over the last few decades, which has created challenges for a priori power calculations. We introduce power approximations for tests of average effect sizes based upon several common approaches for handling dependent effect sizes. In a Monte Carlo simulation, we…

Conducting research with human subjects can be difficult because of limited sample sizes and small empirical effects. We demonstrate that this problem can yield patterns of results that are practically indistinguishable from flipping a coin to determine the direction of treatment effects. We use this idea of random conclusions to establish a…

Social scientists seeking to inform policy or public action must carefully consider how to identify effects and express inferences because actions based on invalid inferences will not yield the intended results. Recognizing the complexities and uncertainties of social science, we seek to inform inevitable debates about causal inferences by…

Conducting and publishing rigorous empirical research based on original data is essential for advancing and sustaining high-quality counseling practice. The purpose of this article is to provide a one-stop-shop for writing a rigorous quantitative Methods section in counseling and related fields. The importance of judiciously planning,…