Benchmarking reference services: step by step

This article is a companion to an introductory article on benchmarking published in an earlier issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly. Librarians interested in benchmarking often ask the following questions: How do I determine what to benchmark; how do I form a benchmarking team; how do I identify benchmarking partners; what's the best way to collect and analyze benchmarking information; and what will I do with the data? Careful planning is a critical success factor of any benchmarking project, and these questions must be answered before embarking on a benchmarking study. This article summarizes the steps necessary to conduct benchmarking research. Relevant examples of each benchmarking step are provided.     

Researchers’ Perceptions of Statistical Significance Contribute to Bias in Health and Exercise Science

We surveyed researchers in the health and exercise sciences to explore different areas and magnitudes of bias in researchers’ decision making. Participants were presented with scenarios (testing a central hypothesis with p = .06 or p = .04) in a random order and surveyed about what they would do in each scenario. Participants showed significant bias in deciding to randomize additional participants when p = .06 (24.5%) compared to when p = .04 (6.5%), χ² = 19.86, odds ratio (OR) = 13.5. Based on this bias to randomize additional participants, we present statistical simulations showing the cumulative negative effect this bias has on the false positive rate for a field. While it is important for researchers to have flexibility in their data-processing decisions, there is a cost/benefit trade-off to experimenter degrees of freedom and it is important that these decisions be unbiased. These data highlight the importance of a priori analysis plans in research.     

Strategic Communication during Marital Relationship Dissolution: Disengagement Resistance Strategies

This study investigated the communication strategies used by divorced individuals who did not wish their marriages to end (non-initiators). Participants were 270 divorced persons drawn from divorce recovery and support groups as well as network sampling. An adaptation of Buss's (1988 Buss , D. M. ( 1988 ). From vigilance to violence: Tactics of mate retention in American undergraduates . Ethology and Sociobiology , 9 , 291 – 317 . [CROSSREF] [CSA] [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) taxonomy of partner retention tactics served to capture the communication strategies of non-initiators during marital dissolution. A factor analysis revealed that four disengagement resistance strategies—commitment, alignment, negativity, and harm—are used by non-initiators during the process of marital dissolution.     

What is "Antiglobalization?" I Prefer Not To Say

What did Carlo Giuliani die for?1 If the "antiglobalization" movement is not to annihilate itself, it must never answer this question, except in some evasive, Bartleby-like way-"I prefer not to… "