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Research Evidence and Social Work Practice: The Place of Evidence-Based Practice

• Original Paper
• Published: 20 August 2013
• Volume 42 , pages 123–133, ( 2014 )

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• James Drisko 1  

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This article will examine what evidence-based practice (EBP) is and is not. EBP will be defined and distinguished from other different, but related, terms and concepts. The steps of EBP as a practice decision-making process will be detailed and illustrated. The kinds of evidence EBP values and devalues will be discussed in several contexts. The administrative uses of EBP and its larger societal context will also be examined. A family therapy based example of doing EBP in clinical practice will show how it can be a real benefit to practice, but also points out some of its challenges and limitations.

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Drisko, J. Research Evidence and Social Work Practice: The Place of Evidence-Based Practice. Clin Soc Work J 42 , 123–133 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-013-0459-9

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Published : 20 August 2013

Issue Date : June 2014

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-013-0459-9

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Practice research methods in social work: Processes, applications and implications for social service organisations

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Bowen McBeath, Michael J Austin, Sarah Carnochan, Emmeline Chuang, Practice research methods in social work: Processes, applications and implications for social service organisations, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 52, Issue 6, September 2022, Pages 3328–3346, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab246

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Although social work research is commonly rooted within social service settings, it can be difficult for social work researchers and practitioners to develop and sustain participatory studies that specifically promote knowledge sharing and service improvement involving organisational practice. One participatory approach is practice research (PR), which involves social work researchers and practitioners collaborating to define, understand and try to improve the delivery of health and social care services and organisational structures and processes. The two goals of this commentary are to introduce essential methods and approaches to PR and to identify points of connection involving PR and social service organisational studies. Our specific focus on PR in statutory, voluntary and private social service organisations reflects efforts to connect practice, theory and qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop and share organisationally-situated knowledge.

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Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice

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Foundations of Social Work Research

(4 reviews)

Rebecca L. Mauldin

Copyright Year: 2020

ISBN 13: 9781648169915

Publisher: Mavs Open Press

Language: English

Formats Available

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Reviewed by LaToya Smith-Jones, Adjunct Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 3/26/24

The textbook covers various topics that are familiar to the Social Work profession. There are relatable examples given within the book, which allow Social Work students to understand discussions through the lens of an actual practitioner. Each... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook covers various topics that are familiar to the Social Work profession. There are relatable examples given within the book, which allow Social Work students to understand discussions through the lens of an actual practitioner. Each section provides an area where research vocabulary is listed and reviewed, as well as examples to deepen the understanding of the vocabulary used.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The information presented in the textbook is presented with accuracy. Bias was not noticed within the text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The information presented within the textbook was up-to-date. Classical studies were also included in the textbook. The classical studies allow the students to understand the historical influence regarding the research process.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook provides examples and a separate vocabulary section in order to understand the jargon and technical terminology. individuals who do not have a research background will be able to comprehend the information written.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is consistent regarding terminology and framework. Each section builds upon the previous section.

Modularity rating: 5

Each section is broken up according to the topic of the chapter. Each chapter is broken up in sections, which allows for an easier read.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The chapters are presented in a logical and clear fashion. The information presented within the textbook builds upon itself. Students are first introduced to background information regarding the topic and then they are given information regarding the application of the information shared.

Interface rating: 5

There were not any interface issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were not any grammatical errors noted.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Information within the text was inclusive and included examples of various ethnicities and backgrounds.

The textbook is excellent to use for students who do not have a research background. The manner in which the information is presented and laid out assists with aiding students' understanding.

Reviewed by Quentin Maynard, Assistant Professor, University of Southern Indiana on 11/30/22

This text covers topics that social work students need to understand to be consumers of research. The author and contributors include current real work examples to help emphasize the different topics. Integrating the chapter on Real World Research... read more

This text covers topics that social work students need to understand to be consumers of research. The author and contributors include current real work examples to help emphasize the different topics. Integrating the chapter on Real World Research throughout the text might help emphasize to students that engaging in research is necessary to our profession, even as practitioners.

The content was accurate and error-free.

The content of the text was up-to-date and included information relevant to social work research. Since the main author solicited contributions from colleagues at their institution, updates and changes would likely be relatively straightforward.

The book seemed accessible for individuals with limited research experience. Key words were defined in the text and included in a glossary at the end of each section and the text.

The text was consistent in style and organization. Chapter subsections have specific learning objectives allowing students to know what will be covered in each chapter. Doing this reduces bloat and increases clarity for readers.

The text did not appear to be structured in a way that was overwhelming or difficult to follow.

The structure of the book was logical.

The digital pdf and the online versions of the text were intuitive and easy to navigate. I did not notice any issues with the interface in either format.

No writing or grammar errors noted.

The text is culturally sensitive. It includes a content advisory at the beginning of each chapter which allows students to be aware of specific topics (e.g., racism, sexism, and poverty) discussed or mentioned in the chapter. While this text was adapted for students at a specific university, the authors include topics that reach much farther than that audience. The examples included cover a diverse set of people and situations.

This is a comprehensive text that allows students the opportunity to learn how to be consumers of social work research. While practice evaluation might not be the scope of this text, other than the chapter on Real World Research, including discussions about how students might apply the concepts of each chapter in social work practice. The structure of the book allows students to see the research that their professors are engaging in and might make research more accessible to social work students and practitioners

Reviewed by Matt Walsh, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Marian University on 12/30/21

This textbook covers all the aspects of research you would expect for an introduction to social work research. It uses classic examples of past research to highlight the importance of ethics in research. It also does a good job of discussing... read more

This textbook covers all the aspects of research you would expect for an introduction to social work research. It uses classic examples of past research to highlight the importance of ethics in research. It also does a good job of discussing both quantitative and qualitative research as well as single system designs and program evaluation. My one critique as someone who does qualitative research is that it mentions the importance of trustworthiness and rigor in qualitative research but does not mention how a research can achieve this. However, it does go into other elements like coding and it would not be hard to provide student with supplemental materials about memoing or peer debriefing as examples and to be fair, it is hard to put everything in just one chapter.

All components are accurately described and well-written. The glossary at the end of each section is helpful for key words. The text appears to be error-free and unbiased.

There are links to recent examples which highlights the real world aspect of research.

This text is clear in its description of research and its major components. Certain aspects like causality get a little advanced for a introduction to research book but there are good visual to aid in students' understanding of some of the more complicated concepts. (Please note that I am reviewing this with BSW students in mind, MSW students may not find some of these sections as overwhelming as I suspect my students might).

The book is very well structured and consistent throughout.

The text is well structured and organized as a whole and in terms of each chapter and each section with the chapters.

The topics follow the order of most other foundational research books I have seen and have a logical flow to them.

I did not find any interface issues.

I could not see any grammatical errors.

There are good examples throughout that display an effort to have inclusivity, diversity, and equity in this text.

I feel like this book would provide students with a good understanding about research and could be used interchangeably with other foundational/introduction books on the market, especially if the professor is familiar with teaching research and has already established a good foundation (quizzes, lecture slides, assignments, activities, etc.).

Reviewed by Vivian Miller, Assistant Professor in Social Work, Bowling Green State University on 1/5/21

The text Foundations of Social Work Research covers social work research comprehensively and appropriately. Across twelve chapters, the author begins by introducing research, the science behind research and how this translates to the profession of... read more

The text Foundations of Social Work Research covers social work research comprehensively and appropriately. Across twelve chapters, the author begins by introducing research, the science behind research and how this translates to the profession of social work, and the importance of understanding research as it applies to social work practice across all system levels. In addition to comprehensive chapters, the text contains a glossary, practice behavior indices, bibliography, derivative notes, and links by each chapter.

This text is an accurate text that is error free. This text is extremely well-written and includes real-life examples, drawing on written contributions from social work faculty across practice settings and populations, as well as students at the masters and doctoral levels.

Much of research methods and the process is overall static, however the author does an incredible job to provide timely, relevant, and applicable examples throughout the text to ensure that this version will not be obsolete within a short period of time.

This text is clearly written and is easy to move through. This text contains chapters and sub-chapters. I’d recommend this book for a higher-level undergraduate program or graduate program (e.g., MSW), as there is technical terminology used. Additionally, the author provides a glossary at the back of the text, hyperlinked to each chapter on the web-version. Moreover, there are definitions highlighted at center page throughout the text.

This text is very consistent. Chapters build on one another and are written in clear order.

The use of subheadings throughout allows this text to be separated into smaller reading sections. For instance, if an instructor wanted to assign reading for “Probability sampling,” this topic can be readily extracted from the full text. A student can understand this topic area despite being separated from the text as context is provided to the reader in each sub-chapter. The use of bolded words, images, examples, and hyperlinks throughout make the text easy to separate and digest.

This text is very well-organized and moves through each section in a step-wise process building on each previous content area.

There are no interface issues in the text. Images display well, as well as key takeaway and glossary charts throughout each chapter.

The text contains no grammatical errors.

This text is culturally sensitive. Examples across all system levels (e.g., micro, messo, and macro) are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Highly recommend this text for a Social Work research course.

Table of Contents

• Chapter One: Introduction to research
• Chapter Two: Linking methods with theory
• Chapter Three: Ethics in social work research
• Chapter Four: Design and causality
• Chapter Five: Defining and measuring concepts
• Chapter Six: Sampling
• Chapter Seven: Survey research
• Chapter Eight: Experimental design
• Chapter Nine: Unique features of qualitative research
• Chapter Ten: Unobtrusive research
• Chapter Eleven: Real-world research
• Chapter Twelve: Reporting research

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This textbook was created to provide an introduction to research methods for BSW and MSW students, with particular emphasis on research and practice relevant to students at the University of Texas at Arlington. It provides an introduction to social work students to help evaluate research for evidence-based practice and design social work research projects. It can be used with its companion, A Guidebook for Social Work Literature Reviews and Research Questions by Rebecca L. Mauldin and Matthew DeCarlo, or as a stand-alone textbook.

About the Contributors

Rebecca L. Mauldin , Ph.D

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Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Downloads and resources for students

Download this textbook.

The current edition of the textbook is 1.0, published on 08/23/2021. For more information on updates to the textbook, consult the Version Information section of the back matter.

This textbook is available in multiple formats to make it easy for students to access and read. All downloads are free, and can be shared in compliance with the copyright license contained in the Copyright Information section of the front matter. Downloads are hosted in our Google Drive folder .

You can also order a print edition of the textbook , through Printme1.com . The cost is about $60 (including shipping) for a Velo-bound black-and-white book. This textbook is a non-commercial work, and the authors receive no financial benefit from print sales.

Most students choose a blend of accessing the textbook using the https://pressbooks.rampages.us/msw-research/ website as well as downloaded copies on their computer, phone, or tablet.

Reading and taking notes in a web browser using Hypothes.is

In addition to the downloads above, you can browse this textbook like a normal website. If this is your first textbook that is also a website (or maybe just your first one built using Pressbooks), we’ve made a short introduction video for how to browse around the textbook. It is a good idea to bookmark https://pressbooks.rampages.us/msw-research/ in your mobile and computer web browser, so you can easily access the textbook whenever you may need it.

As you can see in the video below, we also recommend Hypothes.is for taking notes and highlighting directly on a website like this textbook, including doing so with other students in a private group. We strongly prefer that you use private groups when annotating with hypothes.is (not the default public forum).

Personally, I (Matt) prefer to read e-textbooks on my phone, but I also prefer to read most things on my phone. This tutorial is about how to read and take notes on a website (like this textbook) on your phone using Hypothes.is. As I mention in the video, this is how I edited the book before publication, and it’s a great way to read on-the-go.

Reading and taking notes in a PDF reader

PDF is the most commonly used download option on the textbook. If you prefer to make notes directly on an e-textbook (like highlights and comments), you should use a PDF reader beyond what is offered in your web browser. At minimum, you will want a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat of Foxit Reader which allow you to place comments in PDFs.

If the links inside your PDF do not work, you are using the print PDF instead of the web PDF.  The print PDF should only be used to print the book.

We would like to highlight two options for PDF readers, in particular. The beta edition of Zotero includes a PDF annotation tool, and researchers can use tags, notes, highlights, and other features to mark up the textbook and take notes. We have included a tutorial below. Unfortunately, you cannot perform group annotation in Zotero in shared PDFs, so this is for individual note-taking only.

If you would like to share notes with other students in your class, consider sharing the same PDF copy of the textbook in a shared Google Drive folder. Comments and highlights made in a shared PDF are visible to everyone with access to that document, and it’s a nice way to build a social reading and learning space.

Printing this textbook yourself

Some students love print! You can print this textbook out. In many ways, it’s superior to taking notes digitally. In our classes, students have printed out chapters as they were due each week, and assembled them into a 3-ring binder along with class notes and activities over the semester.

This is a long textbook, so you might want to talk to your university’s printing office or a local copy shop to see if they will print it for you with a 3-hole punch or cheap binding. You can also order a print edition of the textbook , through Printme1.com , where you can select a 3-hole punch option or other bindings. Copy shops and print vendors are permitted under the CC-BY-NC-SA license to charge you to print a copy.

Creating your own version of this textbook

Hello PhD and DSW students! We would love for you to create your own edition of the textbook! (also…all of your projects should be open pedagogy and renewable assignments ). The four core authors of this projects were in the same doctoral cohort together, and we think that open education is a fantastic platform to scale collaboration among social workers receiving the most advanced education our discipline provides!

You can easily create a clone of this textbook (or any subsection of it) using Pressbooks.

• Download the Pressbooks XML file for this textbook.
• Create a Pressbooks account for yourself (and your textbook team).
• Go to Tools/Import.
• Open this textbook’s XML file using the prompt.
• Select all textbook elements to create a perfect clone or specify which chapters or sections you want to import.
• It’s now yours! Do whatever you want with it!
• Make sure to abide by the Creative Commons license and provide proper attribution for all material from this resource (see Copyright Information and Attributions Index for examples).
• To publish your adapted textbook publicly, you will have to pay $99 to Pressbooks to host your book.
• Feel free to consult the  BCCampus self-publishing guide .  You can also ask me at [email protected] for help.  I’m genuinely happy to help!
• Tell us about them! Knowing our community impact is part of what keeps this project going!

If you make changes to the ancillary resources or textbook you feel the community would benefit from, or if you develop new resources, please consider sharing them with the the authors for inclusion in future editions of this textbook and on OER Commons  or  Merlot .  Please provide attribution following the best practices in the BCCampus Adaptation guide .

If you prefer to create your own custom version of this textbook within a learning management system (LMS), please use the Common Cartridge 1.1 file to import some or all of the textbook into your institution’s platform. Pressbooks provides a detailed tutorial for importing into every major LMS platform .

Create and share resources for other students

Open educational resources are all about collaboration, and we hope to foster that collaboration across students using this open textbook. If you create resources you think would be useful to other students, please contact [email protected] and we will consider them for inclusion in Appendix A: Student-to-student resources as well as in an appropriate place in the textbook. We are happy to provide a letter documenting your contribution to the project, if requested.

We want your feedback!

If you have feedback on the textbook (whether it’s something you liked or something that could be better), we’d love to hear from you. Contact [email protected] if you prefer to send an email, memo, or marked up document. We encourage you to use the Hypothes.is annotation group for Community Feedback . We check for feedback regularly, but we are usually only able to get to revisions over the summer academic break.

Graduate research methods in social work Copyright © 2021 by Matthew DeCarlo, Cory Cummings, Kate Agnelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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