Presidential editorial: Controlling for potential biases in research on social work practice effectiveness: Are higher standards needed?

The article offers views on the processes and standards used by professional journals with respect to the review of manuscripts that report evaluations of practice effectiveness. The article discusses rejecting a study that randomly assigned clients to a treatment group and wait-list control group. The article discusses biases in research on social work practice effectiveness. Although the obvious bias in these studies regarding expectation for improvement or experimental demand was roundly criticized in subsequent reviews, it didn't keep them from being published. Given the difficulties researchers face in finding agencies that will permit rigorous experimental outcome studies, it is easy to recommend publishing a study that is strong in virtually every way but one-even if that one weakness is so severe that it virtually destroys the credibility of the study's findings. The author believes in studies using randomized assignment to experimental and control groups, where readers are so impressed by the randomized experimental design that they cut the author some slack regarding possible measurement bias or the potentially biasing effects of expectation for improvement or experimental demand.

Journal

English

Allen Rubin

Rubin, A. (1999, November). Presidential editorial: Controlling for potential biases in research on social work practice effectiveness: Are higher standards needed? Research on Social Work Practice, 9(6), 635-639. doi:10.1177/104973159900900601