How Organizational Researchers Can Make a Difference: The Campbell Collaboration
Hannah Rothstein
Baruch College
A recent editorial in the Academy of Management Journal (Eden, 2002) stated, The value of empirical management research is profoundly augmented if it enables its readers to infer credible scientific generalizations that can inform management practice. Such generalizations are best based on meta-analyses. Another recent editorial in the same journal (Rynes, 2002), claimed, All of us who are pursuing research are hoping that some day, in some way our work will make a difference to someone.
Wouldnt it be nice if there was an organization that helped this happen? Well, dear colleagues, at least for those of you who are interested in the effects of behavioral interventions, there is!
The international Campbell Collaboration is a nonprofit organization that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral, and educational arenas. It intends to do so specifically by preparing, maintaining, and disseminating high-quality systematic reviews (the quantitative form of which is meta-analysis) of studies of the effectiveness of social, behavioral, and educational policies and practices. By supporting the production of these reviews and by disseminating results in an accessible fashion, the Campbell Collaboration intends to contribute to decisions in practice, policy, and to public understanding. Their target audience includes members of the public who want to keep abreast of the best evidence on the effects of social and educational policies and practices, service providers, policy makers, educators and their students, as well as researchers.
The Campbell Collaboration is named after Donald Campbell, who drew attention to the need for societies to assess more rigorously the effects of their social and educational experiments, that is, the policies and practices that they introduce and promote. (You remember Campbell from the Campbell and Stanley or Cook and Campbell texts that you had to read in graduate school dont you?)
Substantive groups: There are currently Campbell Collaboration substantive review groups working in the following areas: crime and justice, social welfare, and education. The original intention was to have a fourth group, to review employment-related interventions, but this has not yet happened. I urge SIOP members interested in developing and advocating for evidence-based policy and practice to get involved in the formation and design of this group. More information is available at the Campbell Collaboration Web site
http://www.campbellcollaboration.org
or by contacting its executive officer, Dorothy DeMoya at ddemoya@erols.com.
Methods groups: The Campbell Collaboration also has a number of methods groups, dedicated to improving the methodology of research synthesis and disseminating state-of-the-art reviewing methods. The methods groups include statistics, information retrieval, training, quasi-experimental design, and implementation processes. A qualitative methods group is in formation. More information on the methods groups can be found on the Campbell Collaboration methods group Web site
http://www.missouri.edu/~c2method/
or by contacting Harris Cooper at cooperh@missouri.edu.
In addition, I would be happy to discuss my experiences as a member of the Campbell Collaboration and as the convener of its Information Retrieval Methods Group. You can reach me at
Hannah_Rothstein@baruch.cuny.edu.
References
Eden, D. (2002). Replication, meta-analysis, scientific progress and AMJs publication policy.
Academy of Management Journal, 45, 841846.
Rynes, S. (2002). Some reflections on contribution. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 311313.
January 2003 Table of
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