Research Design : Donald Campbell's Legacy

Leading social research methodologists and evaluators explore research design issues in this second of two volumes inspired by the work of Donald Campbell and sponsored by the American Evaluation Association. The authors address such issues as quasi-experimentation, the proper conduct of social inquiry, ways to take account of threats to validity, plausible rival hypotheses in measurement and design, subject selection and loss in randomized experiments, the use of evaluation to assess the validity of computer simulations, method variance, and time series experiments. Applied researchers who want to improve their research designs will find this book a compelling and thought-provoking read.

Leonard Bickman is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, where he directs the Center for Mental Health Policy. He has received several awards recognizing the contributions of his research, the most recent being the 1998/99 American Psychological Association's Public Interest Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy. He is past president of the American Evaluation Association and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. He was a Senior Policy Advisor at the U. S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, where his contribution was recognized with the 1997 Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service.