"There is no doubt that this book will be well received by those who are fortunate enough to come across
it. This book will be of use to the growing number of people involved either as purchasers or providers of research.
Don't go to work without it!"
--Health Services Management Research Journal
"I would recommend [this book] to a colleague as a useful companion text for students. I would say that this
is an engaging discussion of experimental research for social, behavioral, and health science students. The writing
style is fresh and entertaining, and draws the willing reader into thinking through the process of designing and
conducting experimental research. It is not a 'cookbook' or a compendium of facts. Rather, it is a pragmatic and
thoughtful description intended to help students understand how to design meaningful experiments, and by understanding
that, they will also understand how to interpret research they do not conduct themselves."
--Katharyn A. May, School of Nursing, Vanderbilt University
"This slim but packed volume is written for prospective researchers in the social and health sciences. The
writing style is lively, encouraging, upbeat. R. Barker Bausell brings science down to earth without sacrificing
respect for rigor and complexity. . . . Recommended for all institutions with undergraduate or graduate research
requirements in the social and health sciences."
--Choice
Sage Publications Incorporated Web Site, September, 2000
Summary
Tired of research methods books that tell how to perform a research study without any mention of the why behind
doing research? Aimed at communicating the excitement and responsibility of the research process, this remarkable
volume enables you to evaluate beforehand whether a prospective research study has the potential to either improve
the human condition, contribute to theory formation, or explain the etiology of a significant phenomenon rather
than to produce just another "publishable" study. By emphasizing how to think about and strategize a
research study, R. Barker Bausell shows you the important steps of a scientific study--from the formulation of
the problem to the write-up of the results.
Replete with illustrative examples drawn from the social, health, and behavioral sciences, this volume is a must
for all serious researchers.
Table of Contents
1. What You Need (And Don't Need) to Be a Scientist
2. Laying the Foundation
3. Formulating a Meaningful Hypothesis
4. Evaluating the Meaningfulness of the Research Hypothesis
5. Designing an Experiment
6. Designing Experimental Studies to Achieve Statistical Significance
7. Conducting the Pilot Study(ies)
8. Conducting the Actual Study
9. Analyzing and Reporting the Results
