Includes bibliographical references (pages 674-686) and index.

Contents: An introduction to scientific inquiry in social work: Why study research? -- Evidence-based practice -- Philosophy and theory in social work research -- Comparing quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods of inquiry -- The ethical, political and cultural context of social work research: The ethics and politics of social work research -- Culturally competent research -- Problem formulation -- Conceptualization in quantitative and qualitative inquiry -- Measurement -- Constructing measurement instruments -- Designs for evaluating programs and practice: Casual inference and experimental designs -- Quasi-experimental designs -- Single-case evaluation designs -- Program evaluation -- Data collection methods with large sources of data: Sampling -- Survey research -- Analyzing existing data: quantitative and qualitative methods -- Qualitative research methods: Qualitative research: general principles -- Qualitative research: specific methods -- Qualitative data analysis -- Analysis of quantitative data: Quantitative data analysis -- Inferential data analysis: part 1 -- Inferential data analysis: part 2 -- Writing research proposals and reports: Writing research proposals and reports --