Evidence - Grand Format

When you read in the newspaper that "research has shown X, Y and Z," do you ever ask yourself how research has done that ? It's not as simple as it may seem. In fact, Howard S. Becker argues, it's the hardest thing to do. You can easily dream up new ideas, but scientific studies can't just state new ideas. They have to produce evidence, data that show that a new idea is supported by observations gathered in a rigorous way.
But the biggest problems in social science arise when the facts offered have explanations other than the one the scientist is hoping to prove. Becker is a master of his discipline and he has for seventy years been mulling over the problems of evidence. His reputation as a teacher, as well as a sociologist, is supported by his best-selling quartet of sociological guidebooks and readers will find this newest guidebook a valuable tool, useful for social scientists of every variety.