Foundations of Social Work Research

Reviewed by Vivian Miller, Assistant Professor in Social Work, Bowling Green State University on 1/5/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text Foundations of Social Work Research covers social work research comprehensively and appropriately. Across twelve chapters, the author begins by introducing research, the science behind research and how this translates to the profession of social work, and the importance of understanding research as it applies to social work practice across all system levels. In addition to comprehensive chapters, the text contains a glossary, practice behavior indices, bibliography, derivative notes, and links by each chapter.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This text is an accurate text that is error free. This text is extremely well-written and includes real-life examples, drawing on written contributions from social work faculty across practice settings and populations, as well as students at the masters and doctoral levels.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Much of research methods and the process is overall static, however the author does an incredible job to provide timely, relevant, and applicable examples throughout the text to ensure that this version will not be obsolete within a short period of time.

Clarity rating: 5

This text is clearly written and is easy to move through. This text contains chapters and sub-chapters. I’d recommend this book for a higher-level undergraduate program or graduate program (e.g., MSW), as there is technical terminology used. Additionally, the author provides a glossary at the back of the text, hyperlinked to each chapter on the web-version. Moreover, there are definitions highlighted at center page throughout the text.

Consistency rating: 5

This text is very consistent. Chapters build on one another and are written in clear order.

Modularity rating: 5

The use of subheadings throughout allows this text to be separated into smaller reading sections. For instance, if an instructor wanted to assign reading for “Probability sampling,” this topic can be readily extracted from the full text. A student can understand this topic area despite being separated from the text as context is provided to the reader in each sub-chapter. The use of bolded words, images, examples, and hyperlinks throughout make the text easy to separate and digest.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

This text is very well-organized and moves through each section in a step-wise process building on each previous content area.

Interface rating: 5

There are no interface issues in the text. Images display well, as well as key takeaway and glossary charts throughout each chapter.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text is culturally sensitive. Examples across all system levels (e.g., micro, messo, and macro) are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Comments

Highly recommend this text for a Social Work research course.