To help researchers and students make the transition from the classroom and laboratory to research in the `real world', the authors reveal the pitfalls and suggest strategies to overcome problems in the design and planning of applied research. With a focus on how to refine research questions as real world events force deviations from the original research plan, they discuss how to study and monitor programme implementation and statistical power analysis. They also explore how to assess the human and material resources that will be needed at different times while conducting an applied research design to facilitate the management of data collection, analysis and interpretation.
Terry E. Hedrick is Director of the Training Institute of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). In this role, she directs agency training and education efforts to prepare GAO staff to carry out their responsibilities to produce quality and unbiased audit, evaluation, and policy analysis work for Congress. Leonard Bickman, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Public Policy. He is director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and Associate Dean for Research at Peabody College. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology (social) from the City University of New York, his master's degree in experimental psychopathology from Columbia University and his bachelor's from the City College of New York. Professor Bickman is a nationally recognized leader in program evaluation and mental healthservices research on children and adolescents. He has published more than 15 books and monographs and 180 articles and chapters and has been principal investigator on over 25 major grants from several agencies. He is co-editor of the Applied Research Methods Series published by Sage Publications since 1980. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of Applied Social Research and is collaborating on a new International Handbook of Social Research. He is the co-author of the very popular book Applied Research Design: A Practical Guide. Debra J. Rog, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate with the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement (CEPI), and directs its Washington office. She has over 25 years of experience in program evaluation and applied research and has directed numerous multi-site evaluations and research projects involving issues of poverty, homelessness, housing and services for vulnerable populations including children and families, mental health, and others. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of a Coordinating Center for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's Homeless Families Initiative, and two foundation-funded cross-site evaluations of local collaboratives focused on violence prevention. Dr. Rog has to her credit numerous publications on evaluation methodology, housing, homelessness, poverty, mental health, and program and policy development and has edited numerous substantive and methodological volumes, including the Applied Social Research Methods Series and the Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Evaluation Association, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Public Health Association. She completed an appointment on the Advisory Committee of Women's Services for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and has been recognized for her evaluation work by the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Evaluation Association, the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, and the Knowledge Utilization Society.
Foreword - Thomas W Cook The Nature of Applied Research Defining the Focus of the Research Selecting a Research Design Selecting Data Collection Approaches Resource Planning Making Trade-offs and Testing Feasibility
