The Nature and Extent of Quantitative Research in Social Work: A Ten-Year Study of Publications in Social Work Journals

Abstract

The capacity to produce and understand quantitative research has been a major preoccupation for social work in recent years, with major funded initiatives for knowledge and skills development taking place, supported by key social work institutions. This has taken place against a general background of concern about social work's research capacity to underpin evidence-based practice. This is a complex issue both because, on the one hand, quantitative literacy itself presents challenges, sometimes at a basic level, while, on the other, advanced statistical understanding can be required to carry out research involving, and make sense of, quantitative data. Despite these initiatives, however, very little evidence exists about the nature, range and scope of quantitative research in social work. The research reported here draws on findings from a detailed analysis of 1,490 articles published over ten years in major British-based, but international in scope, refereed journals. The findings paint a complex picture on the scale, scope, complexity focus and demands presented by quantitative research findings. On the basis of these findings, issues discussed include the learning needs of the profession, professional/academic culture, ‘reader demands’ and research capacity.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 17 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.