The Practice of Research in Social Work

Designed to help students develop skills in evaluating research and conducting studies, the Third Edition of this popular text makes principles of evidence-based practice come alive through illustrations of actual social work research. The authors introduce students to the study of research in social work and to the contributions made to our understanding of what is effective social work practice. In addition, the authors have designed this edition to directly and indirectly help students achieve the six core competencies identified by CSWE as essential to competency-based education, including research (2.1.6), ethical principles (2.1.2), critical thinking (2.1.3), engage diversity (2.1.4), advancing human rights (2.1.5), and evaluation (2.1.10[d]).

Rafael J. Engel, PhD, is Emeritus Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work where he taught from 1988 to 2025. He completed his PhD degree at the University of Wisconsin, MSW degree at the University of Michigan, and BA degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the three Principal Investigators (with Jeffrey Shook and Sara Goodkind) of the Pittsburgh Wage Study initiative (www.pittsburghwagestudy.pitt.edu) and Director of Research for Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh. In addition to Practice of Research in Social Work¸ he has co-authored Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Russell Schutt) and co-edited Measuring Race and Ethnicity (with Larry Davis). He has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles as well written monographs, technical reports, and research briefs and has presented numerous papers at peer-reviewed conferences. Much of this work has focused on poverty, income inequality, mental health, substance use, and gerontology. Though recently retired (August 2025), Engel continues to write about lower-wage work and assist with studies on Jewish identity as part of the Jewish Identity Research Collaborative.

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University. In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and seven editions of Making Sense of the Social World, with Daniel F. Chambliss, PhD, as well as coauthored versions for criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 70 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as more than 30 non-refereed articles and book chapters on social support, mental and physical health, health services, organizations, homelessness, law, and teaching research methods. His research has been funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the National Science Foundation, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.