----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Saul Becker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:16 PM
Subject: Defining 'quality' in social policy research - new report published


A new report, "Defining 'quality' in social policy research: views, 
perceptions and a framework for discussion" by Saul Becker, Alan Bryman and 
Joe Sempik has just been published by the Social Policy Association and is 
available in pdf to download from the SPA website at:

http://www.social-policy.com/documents/spaquality06.pdf


The report presents the findings from a mixed-methods study of over 250 
social policy researchers and users of research and how they conceptualise 
'quality' in social policy research and how they judge the quality of 
published research texts.



It draws on three sources of original data: an Internet survey of 251 
respondents, six discussion groups with 26 participants and in-depth 
telephone interviews with a further 28 interviewees. The study is the first 
to capture the range of views and criteria concerning 'quality' that are 
held by members of the 'social policy community'. The report provides a 
synthesis of the key findings from all sources of data. It examines 
indicators of quality in quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, 
cross-national and theoretical social policy research; it explores whether 
there is a perceived 'hierarchy' of methods in social policy research 
whereby the method and research design themselves are associated with higher 
quality; it reviews what the social policy community think of user 
involvement in research and how this involvement may affect quality; it 
discusses how 'originality', 'significance' and 'rigour' can be conceived of 
as criteria of quality; and it shows that within the social policy community 
it is possible to construct a ranking of quality criteria with some 
indicators receiving significantly more support than others.



This report is timely given the growing concern in higher education for 
assessing quality in research, particularly the quality of published 
research, through the mechanism of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 
The data contained in the report, and the findings, will be of interest to 
those who conduct, manage, fund, publish, review or use social policy 
research and particularly to those who need to make judgements about the 
quality of published studies.  It is hoped that the publication of this 
report will generate dialogue and debate within and outside the social 
policy community about what counts as 'quality'.



Saul Becker