N-of-1 trials, a special case of Single Case Experimental Designs (SCEDs), are prominent in clinical medical research and specifically psychiatry due to the growing significance of precision/personalized medicine. It is imperative that these clinical trials be conducted, and their data analyzed, using the highest standards to guard against threats…

We explored the possibility of publication bias in the sleep and explicit motor sequence learning literature by applying precision effect test (PET) and precision effect test with standard errors (PEESE) weighted regression analyses to the 88 effect sizes from a recent comprehensive literature review (Pan & Rickard, 2015). Basic PET analysis…

Evaluators of education interventions are increasingly designing studies to detect impacts much smaller than the 0.20 standard deviations that Cohen (1988) characterized as "small." While the need to detect smaller impacts is based on compelling arguments that such impacts are substantively meaningful, the drive to detect smaller impacts…

This article contains a second-order meta-analysis and an exploration of bias in the technology integration literature in higher education. Thirteen meta-analyses, dated from 2000 to 2014 were selected to be included based on the questions asked and the presence of adequate statistical information to conduct a quantitative synthesis. The weighted…

In this research, the level of quality of the qualitative research design used and the analytic mistakes made in the doctorate dissertations carried out in the field of education science in Turkey have been tried to be identified. Case study design has been applied in the study in which qualitative research techniques have been used. The universe…

Discusses, in the context of library evaluation, the major sources of untrustworthy information and describes what can be done to control them. The emphasis is on assessing the impact of changed operations. (JD)

The decisive power of an experiment, for both social evaluation research and laboratory experimentation as well, is only as strong as the clarity of the basic assumptions which underlie it. A dialectical methodology is proposed for assessing the influence of key assumptions in both settings. (Author/CTM)

The biasing effects of a pretest on subsequent post-test results were investigated in two experimental studies. In general, the results argue for using designs without pretests. (Author/JKS)

Asserts that much of research currently conducted in counselor education and supervision is unreliable and invalid. Presents tabulation of research designs and errors in manuscripts submitted to "Counselor Education and Supervision." Notes that over 80% of submitted studies were descriptive designs and nearly one-half had errors that invalidated…

A Type VI error results from inconsistency between the researchers' question of interest and the statistical procedures employed to analyze the data. An example of a research problem is analyzed to show the increase in statistical power resulting from improved research design, using multiple regression instead of analysis of variance. (CTM)

A review of the literature suggests that choice of control group may have affected the policy implications of the major evaluations of governmental training programs. It is argued that the usual evaluation designs underadjust for preprogram differences between trainees and the control group and thus yield biased estimates of program impact.…

Dissertations are an important component of the effort to generate knowledge. Thus, dissertation quality may be seen by accreditation and coordinating-board reviewers as a noteworthy reflection on the quality of doctoral programs themselves. The present study reviews methodological errors within Ph.D. dissertations. The illustrative errors are…