The Experts of Quasi-Experimentation

Spring 2007, Volume 29, Number 1

Thomas D. Cook and the late Donald T. Campbell authored what is often referred to as the “bible” of causal designs, Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings (1979). The book was extensively revised in 2002 with William R. Shadish as Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Both are published by Houghton-Mifflin.

“I have taught doctoral-level research methods in departments of psychology (and, to a lesser extent, in departments of management) for almost 30 years,” wrote Eugene F. Stone-Romero in Organizational Research Methods Review in 2004.  “Until the publication of [the 2002 Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs], [the 1979 book] was the backbone of such classes. Now [the revised 2002 book] is the mainstay of my methods courses. Relative to the many graduate-level texts on research methods that are available, it offers the best overall treatment of a host of methods-related issues. It is, without question, the peerless bible of research methods.”

As recognized leaders in their field, Cook and Shadish hope to pass on their accumulated knowledge on experimental and non-experimental designs in a multitude of fields from health to psychology and statistics in addition to education. Cook and Shadish both stem from the “Northwestern School” of causal research methodology. The school was initiated by Donald T. Campbell, who collaborated with other faculty members and doctoral students at Northwestern, including Cook and Shadish, to extend his reasoning and empirical work.

Cook has written or edited ten books and published numerous articles and book chapters. He is a past recipient of the Myrdal Prize for Science from the Evaluation Research Society and the Distinguished Scientist Award of Division 5 of the American Psychological Association. He is chair of the board of the Russell Sage Foundation and a member of many national committees and organizations, including the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Head Start Accountability and Educational Performance Measures at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Independent Review Panel for the evaluation of Title I in the U.S. Department of Education.

Cook is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was inducted into the American Academy of Political and Social Science as the Margaret Mead Fellow in 2003.

Shadish is a past recipient of the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association, a past president of the American Evaluation Association, a winner of the Donald T. Campbell Award for Innovations in Methodology from the Policy Studies Organization, and the recipient of a James McKeen Cattell Fellowship from the Association for Psychological Science. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters, in addition to writing or editing nine books.

Shadish is a charter member of the American Evaluation Association, a fellow of Divisions 5 and 27 of the American Psychological Association, and a charter fellow of the American Psychological Society. He is also a member of the American Statistical Association, the Society for Clinical Trials, and the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.