Looking for resources related to one of my books?
Go to Book Web Site for book information, chapter resources and data sets, and more!
My book on Best Practices in Quantitative Research Methods, available from Sage. Also available from Amazon and other retailers. |
Go to Book Web Site for book information, chapter resources and data sets, and more! This forthcoming book on Best Practices in data cleaning, available from Sage. Also available from Amazon and other retailers. |
Why should you care about Best Practices?Decision makers are increasingly pressured to make evidence-based decisions, yet these decisions are only as good as the evidence they are based on. It seems every year we are hearing about new, expensive “miracle drugs” and educational interventions and policy initiatives that initially show promise and later turn out to be no more effective than simple, cheap, previously available medicines, interventions, or pedagogies. Research has ethical and moral consequences. Decisions to expend resources and affect lives are based on our results (or lack thereof), If you are a researcher and you use best practices, you maximize the probability that your research will actually be of use to someone else. The world depends on research to give accurate, unbiased evidence for decisionmaking, and sometimes to speak truth to power. If you believe this as I do, then you cannot engage in quantitative research without attempting to do it in the best way possible. There is almost never a (good) reason not to use best practices. In best practices, we attempt to leave behind the baggage of the 20th century, to wipe the canvas clean and paint a new era of research methods. We want you to succeed, so that you may make our world, and our children’s world, a better place. The world doesn’t need another textbook reviewing how to calculate correlation coefficients, that treats ANOVA and regression like two different worlds, that genuflects at the altar of p < .05. These books are a challenge to you, fellow researcher. Shrug off the shackles of 20th century methodology, and the next time you sit down to examine your hard-won data, challenge yourself to implement one new methodology that represents a best practice. And each time afterward, add one more. There it is. The gauntlet has been cast down. Do you pick it up, accepting my challenge? |
Recent publications (links to my most-cited articles)
Albrecht, S., Kelly-Thomas, K., Osborne, J. W., & Ogbagaber, S. (2011). The “SUCCESS” program for Smoking Cessation for Pregnant Women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 40(5), 520-531.
Busby, J. R, Hatcher, T., & Osborne, J. W. (2011). The Diversity of Three American White Guys: Pathways towards Racial Identity. International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, 11.
Shattuck, D., Corbell, K. A., Osborne, J. W., Knezek, G. & Christensen, R. (2011) Measuring teacher attitudes toward instructional technology: A confirmatory factor analysis of the TAC and TAT . Computers in Schools, 28, 1-25.
Osborne, J. W. (2011). Best Practices in using large, complex samples: The importance of using appropriate weights and design effect compensation. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 16(12) 1-7. http://pareonline.net/pdf/v16n12.pdf
Osborne, J.W. & Jones, B. (2011). Identification with academics and motivation to achieve in school: How the structure of the self influences academic outcomes. Educational Psychology Review, 23, 131-158. DOI: 10.1007/s10648-011-9151-1
Osborne, J.W., & Blanchard, M. R. (2011). Random responding from participants is a threat to the validity of social science research results. Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 1, Article 220, pp. 1-7 doi: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2010.00220.
Osborne, J. W. (2010). Improving your data transformations: Applying Box-Cox transformations as a best practice. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 15(12), 1-9. Retrieved from http://pareonline.net/pdf/v15n12.pdf.
Osborne, J. W., & Mollette, M. J. (2010). Grand Challenges in Educational Psychology. Frontiers in Educational Psychology, 1(157), 1-2. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00157
Blanchard, M. R., Southerland, S. A., Osborne, J. W., Sampson, V., Annetta, L. A., & Granger, E. M. (2010). Investigating the Relative Effectiveness of Guided Inquiry and Traditional, Didactic Laboratory Instruction: Is Inquiry Possible in Light of Accountability? Science Education, 94(4), 577-616.
Corbell, K.A., Osborne, J., Reiman, A.J. (2010). Supporting and Retaining Beginning Teachers: A Validity Study of the Perceptions of Success Inventory for Beginning Teachers. Educational Research and Evaluation, 16(1), 75-96. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803611003722325
Osborne, J. W. (2010). Data Cleaning Basics: Best Practices in Dealing with Extreme Scores. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 10(1), Special Issue on Quantitative Research Methodology, 37-43.
Osborne, J. W. (2010). Challenges for Quantitative Psychology and Measurement in the 21st Century. Frontiers in Psychology. 1:1, 1-3. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00001
Osborne, J. W., and Holland, A. (2009). What is authorship, and what should it be? A survey of prominent guidelines for determining authorship in scientific publications. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(15). Available online: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=14&n=15.
Osborne, J. W., & Costello, A. B. (2009). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Pan-Pacific Management Review, 12(2) 131-146. Reprint of Costello & Osborne (2005).