The Sage Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods

The Second Edition of The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods provides students and researchers with the most comprehensive resource covering core methods, research designs, and data collection, management, and analysis issues. This thoroughly revised edition continues to place critical emphasis on finding the tools that best fit the research question given the constraints of deadlines, budget, and available staff. Each chapter offers guidance on how to make intelligent and conscious tradeoffs so that one can refine and hone the research question as new knowledge is gained, unanticipated obstacles are encountered, or contextual shifts take place.

Each chapter has been enhanced pedagogically to include more step-by-step procedures, more practical examples from various settings to illustrate the method, parameters to define when the method is most appropriate and when it is not appropriate. The editors also include numerous graphs, models, tip boxes to provide teaching and learning tools.

Key Features of the Second Edition

• Emphasizes applying research techniques, particularly in "real-world" settings in which there are various data, money, time, and political constraints
• Contains new chapters on mixed methods, qualitative comparative analysis, concept mapping, and internet data collection
• Offers a newly developed section that serves as a guide for students who are attempting to translate the content in the chapters into action

Intended Audience

This Handbook is appropriate for introductory and intermediate research methods courses that focus intently on practical applications and a survey of the many methods available to budding researchers.

Leonard Bickman, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Public Policy. He is director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and Associate Dean for Research at Peabody College. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology (social) from the City University of New York, his master′s degree in experimental psychopathology from Columbia University and his bachelor′s from the City College of New York. Professor Bickman is a nationally recognized leader in program evaluation and mental healthservices research on children and adolescents. He has published more than 15 books and monographs and 180 articles and chapters and has been principal investigator on over 25 major grants from several agencies. He is co-editor of the Applied Research Methods Series published by Sage Publications since 1980. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of Applied Social Research and is collaborating on a new International Handbook of Social Research. He is the co-author of the very popular book Applied Research Design: A Practical Guide.


Debra J. Rog, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate with the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement (CEPI), and directs its Washington office. She has over 25 years of experience in program evaluation and applied research and has directed numerous multi-site evaluations and research projects involving issues of poverty, homelessness, housing and services for vulnerable populations including children and families, mental health, and others. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of a Coordinating Center for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration′s Homeless Families Initiative, and two foundation-funded cross-site evaluations of local collaboratives focused on violence prevention. Dr. Rog has to her credit numerous publications on evaluation methodology, housing, homelessness, poverty, mental health, and program and policy development and has edited numerous substantive and methodological volumes, including the Applied Social Research Methods Series and the Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Evaluation Association, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Public Health Association. She completed an appointment on the Advisory Committee of Women′s Services for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and has been recognized for her evaluation work by the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Evaluation Association, the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, and the Knowledge Utilization Society.