Ideal for students, researchers, marketers, planners, and policymakers who design and manage public and private agencies, conduct research studies, and prepare strategic plans and grant proposals, this new edition includes:
- Nearly a hundred online examples and references from the social, behavioural, and health sciences
- A revised and updated list of online articles databases
- Case studies in the use of major online databases (e.g., the Web of Science)
- Expansion of the exercises at the end of the chapter to include more online searching
- Clarification of some of the basic concepts of research that are essential in making judgments about the quality of research methods
- Explanation of the major available formal systems (such as CONSORT, TREND, PRISMA) for evaluating the literature's transparency and quality
- More qualitative research examples and guidelines and checklists for evaluating their quality
- Discussion and examples of mixed-methods research
- Additional examples of how to write up reviews and how others have done it.
Author Biography
Arlene Fink (PhD) is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the Langley Research Institute. Her main interests include evaluation and survey research and the conduct of research literature reviews as well as the evaluation of their quality. Dr. Fink has conducted scores of evaluation studies in public health, medicine, and education. She is on the faculty of UCLA's Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and is a scientific and evaluation advisor to UCLA's Gambling Studies and IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling & Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) programs. She consults nationally and internationally for agencies such as L'institut de Promotion del la Prevention Secondaire en Addictologie (IPPSA) in Paris, France, and Peninsula Health in Victoria, Australia. Professor Fink has taught and lectured extensively all over the world and is the author of more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbooks.
