Survey-based research is vital in education and social sciences, offering insights into human behaviors and perceptions. The prevalence of such studies in medical education has risen by 33% over the past decade. Despite this growth, the utility of survey findings depends on the study design quality and measure validity. Many manuscripts are…

This paper describes, and lays out an argument for, the use of a procedure to help groups of reviewers to judge the quality of prior research reports. It argues why such a procedure is needed, and how other existing approaches are only relevant to some kinds of research, meaning that a review or synthesis cannot successfully combine quality…

The purpose of this article is to describe scholarly research to the degree that when something labeled "research" is encountered in daily life, the reader will be equipped to discern its credibility. Specifically, the article addresses the following questions: (1) What exactly is "research"?; (2) What distinguishes scholarly…

This exploratory essay considers how and why humanities research is excluded, co-opted, or othered in methods courses and methods course offerings for education research at an R1 institution. While not generalizable (ironically?), concerns have also been raised by philosophers of education that philosophy is not taught or is rarely taught as a…

The author, a consultant who has worked on projects in the education, training and professional regulation arena for more than three decades, reflects on factors that make for successful interventions and sustainable project outcomes. Seven key factors are identified: (1) intellectual credibility, both in a substantive and methodological sense;…

Qualitative inquiry has recently experienced a burgeoning in the field of educational research. Qualitative research is uniquely positioned to provide researchers with process-based, narrated, storied, data that is more closely related to the human experience. One can learn so much from another's experience, and from a good story. Yet, the degree…

High-quality systematic literature reviews provide a systematic process for identifying, synthesizing, and critiquing multiple studies and, in turn, inform theory, research, practice, and policy. With a focus on special education systematic reviews, we propose four core principles (i.e., coherence, contextualization, generativity, and…

Research indicating many study results do not replicate has raised questions about the credibility of science and prompted concerns about a potential reproducibility crisis. Moreover, most published research is not freely accessible, which limits the potential impact of science. Open science, which aims to make the research process more open and…

Researchers in the field of health psychology developed interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore how individuals make sense of, and meaning from, experiences of personal significance. We describe our approach to using IPA to explore whether current theories of achievement motivation adequately account for the experiences of students…

This article provides insight into how an adequate approach to selecting methods can establish credible and actionable evidence. The authors offer strategies to effectively support Extension professionals, including program developers and evaluators, in being more deliberate when selecting appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods. In…

Consultation relies on story. This is true for researchers, for practitioners, and for clients. Given this fact, qualitative and mixed methods (QMM) research are particularly well suited to listening to the stories that compose the clinical practice of consultation in order to extend understanding and to support improvement and innovation. In this…

Reviews of research in special education have a unique place in the scientific literature, with the potential to inform a broad audience about the effectiveness and acceptability of assessment and intervention strategies for a heterogeneous group of children and youth. Results from reviews are useful to school leaders, practitioners, parents,…

When developing case studies within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision within the Republic of Ireland, the authors were conscious of the critiques of the use of this approach within educational research. The difficulties associated with generalisation, challenges of ensuring trustworthiness and the possibilities of…

We argue for a view of credible evidence that is multidimensional in philosophical and methodological terms. We advocate for the importance of deepening the meaning of credible evaluation practice and findings by bringing multiple philosophical and theoretical lenses to the evaluation process as a basis for the use of mixed methods in evaluation,…

Most investigators using single-case experimental designs use interobserver agreement (IOA) checks to enhance the credibility of the collected data, and they report the results of those assessments using percentage of agreement estimates. An alternative is to graph both observers' records of the measured behavior on the primary study graphs. Such…