Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research

Abstract

Part 1 Introduction - how does anybody know anything: purpose - what are we trying to do assumptions - what we believe about how we know. Part 2 Discovery and communication of research finding - where do errors come from?: observation - seeing is not believing communication - writing adds other problems interpretation - ... and then you read it. Part 3 The nature of error - what kinds are there: bias - a systematic error noise - the other type of error. Part 4 Factually accurate information - can you believe it?: subject matter - what is being studied? measurement - how does it size up? description - are the results summarized fairly? relationships - more informative, but more difficult to understand control - rival explanations ... is something else at work? inference - are the results real ... or could they have been caused by noise?. Part 5 Useful information - should you apply it?: generality - do the results apply to you? being practical - going beyond error. Part 6 Applications - how to do evaluations: a step-by-step guide for evaluation questions to ask practicing sample evaluations practice articles.

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