Advice on case selection in small-"N" research emphasizes controlling for confounding variables to facilitate inferential tests of a cross-case pattern. Yet many researchers embrace the "mechanismic worldview" and aim to construct explanations. Explanations differ from inferences because one explains an outcome at the…

Meta-studies are often conducted on empirical findings obtained from overlapping samples. Sample overlap is common in research fields that strongly rely on aggregated observational data (eg, economics and finance), where the same set of data may be used in several studies. More generally, sample overlap tends to occur whenever multiple estimates…

To date, hundreds of researchers have employed the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) for the purpose of causal inference. In a recent series of simulation studies, however, several authors have questioned the correctness of QCA in this connection. Some prominent representatives of the method have replied in turn that simulations…

In this response to John Raven's "Diving in Where Angels Fear to Tread: Pre-Requisites to Evidence-Based Interventions," Stephen Gorard questions whether Raven's claims that researchers have created a serious threat to the entire earth, perhaps all of science, the process of education, and the field of psychology due to a lack of logic…

John Raven's article concerns the relationship between policy and evidence, what role that relationship plays in shaping the society in which we live, and what role researchers might play in shaping the relationship between policy and evidence. Although published in a "Psychology of Education Review", some of the examples draw beyond the…

In this article, I present how I navigated unexpected apprehension that I faced while communicating with teacher participants during my PhD data collection (via interviews, observations and document study). I mediated the apprehension by strategies such as disclosing my teacher identity, expressing an interest in their practice and assuring them…

Community violence has been identified as a pressing public health crisis in the United States. A wealth of research establishes robust connections between youth's exposure to community violence and an array of negative psychological outcomes. In this article, we argue that developmental scientists need to adopt a more expansive definition of…

Thirty years ago Boyer's report "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate" (1990) inspired the launch of the 'SoTL movement' which sought to raise the status of learning and teaching in higher education. In this paper we argue that despite its honourable intentions the SoTL movement has been a thorn in the flesh of…

Since 2018, colleagues from two research centers at Dublin City University have been collaborating to develop a measurement scale to assess individuals' ability to identify workplace bullying. Having agreed on an operational definition of the construct, an item pool of 26 workplace bullying scenarios, that is, short descriptions of…

For meta-analysis of studies that report outcomes as binomial proportions, the most popular measure of effect is the odds ratio (OR), usually analyzed as log(OR). Many meta-analyses use the risk ratio (RR) and its logarithm because of its simpler interpretation. Although log(OR) and log(RR) are both unbounded, use of log(RR) must ensure that…

Standard generic inverse variance methods for the combination of single proportions are based on transformed proportions using the logit, arcsine, and Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformations. Generalized linear mixed models are another more elaborate approach. Irrespective of the approach, meta-analysis results are typically back-transformed…

A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to compare methods for handling missing data in growth mixture models. The methods considered in the current study were (a) a fully Bayesian approach using a Gibbs sampler, (b) full information maximum likelihood using the expectation-maximization algorithm, (c) multiple imputation, (d) a two-stage multiple…

Urban planning research usually requires researchers to undertake fieldwork. This fieldwork is frustrated or enabled by gatekeepers who can influence effective data collection. Traditionally, gatekeepers are perceived as monolithic, neutral, and static individuals, yet they are complex individuals with varying needs and expectations from the…

Research on input processing and processing instruction has often employed a scoring method known as trials to criterion to observe the effects of instruction that emerge during training. Despite its common use in this research (see Fernández, 2021) this metric has never been evaluated critically. The present study first discusses several…

Evidence-based education aims to support policy makers choosing between potential interventions. This rarely involves considering each in isolation; instead, sets of evidence regarding many potential policy interventions are considered. Filtering a set on any quantity measured with error risks the "winner's curse": conditional on…