Credibility

About: Credibility is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13730 publications have been published within this topic receiving 331944 citations. The topic is also known as: believability & plausibility.

Raising Response Rates in Mail Surveys of Small Business Owners: Results of an Experiment

Abstract: Mail surveys of small business owners have notoriously low response rates, creating the potential for substantial error in surveys of this population and diminishing the credibility of research conducted on small firms. The author recently carried out an experiment as part of a larger project involving 16,000 small business owner/members of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The experiment's purpose was to ascertain survey treatments that might enhance mail survey response among small business owners. Results showed that none of the six treatments examined improved response rates enough to warrant its routine use over the alternative, nor did any combinations of treatments help. The implication is that commonly used treatments, for example prenotification, often are unproductive.

A new vocabulary and other innovations for improving descriptive in-training evaluations.

Abstract: Progress in improving the credibility of teachers' descriptive evaluations of students and residents has not kept pace with the progress made in improving the credibility of more quantified methods, such as multiple-choice examinations and standardized patient examinations of clinical skills. This article addresses innovative approaches to making the ongoing in-training evaluation (ITEv) of trainees during their clinical experiences more reliable and valid. The innovations include the development of a standard vocabulary for describing the progress of trainees from "reporter" to "interpreter" to "manager" and "educator" (RIME), the use of formal evaluation sessions, and closer consideration of the unit of clinical evaluation (the case, the rotation, or the year). The author also discusses initial results of studies assessing the reliability and validity of descriptive methods, as well as the use of quantified methods to complement descriptive methods. Applying basic principles--the use of a taxonomy of professional development and statistical principles of reliability and validity--may foster research into more credible descriptive evaluation of clinical skills.

Ethnographic and participatory approaches to research on farmers responses to climate predictions

Abstract: This article synthesizes the state of the art in the application of ethnographic and par- ticipatory methods in climate application research. The review focuses on 2 aspects: (1) the cogni- tive and cultural landscape in which farmers' understanding of climate and climate information is grounded and (2) the decision-making processes and environment which shape farmers' adaptive strategies. The first part analyzes methods to elicit how farmers perceive and predict climate events and how these perspectives relate to scientific forecasts. It addresses the long-standing question of whether and how farmers understand the probabilistic nature of climate forecasts and how they assess the credibility and accuracy of such information. The second part examines approaches to characterizing the vulnerability of decision makers and to elucidating the configuration of options and obstacles that farmers face in using climate forecasts to mitigate risk. The complexities of farm- ers' decisions and the difficulties of identifying the exact role that climate predictions play (and, therefore, of directly attributing impacts to them) are taken into account. Finally, the review high- lights efforts to transcend the localized focus of farmer-centered approaches in order to capture inter- actions across sectors and scales. The review concludes by proposing that climate application research move from a 'technology-adoption' paradigm to a broader perspective on vulnerability and adaptation. This shift will entail a cross-scale, multi-sited research design and an interdisciplinary mix of interactive and structured tools and techniques. It will also require that the analytical focus be expanded to encompass local communities and their multiple action spaces as well as the higher spheres of decision-making, where policy and science are shaped.