Reporting Results of Single-Case Studies

The American Counseling Association (ACA) has called for counselors to be actively involved in research that informs practice. The ACA Code of Ethics (2014) states that "Counselors who conduct research are encouraged to contribute to the knowledge base of the profession and promote a clearer understanding of the conditions that lead to a healthy and more just society" (Section G., p. 15). The ACA Code of Ethics (2014) also advises counselors to "plan, conduct, and report research accurately" (Section G.4.a., p. 16). Thus, accurately reporting the results of one's research is an important task for counselors and counselor educators. Furthermore, counseling researchers are expected to contextualize their findings and write results in a way that others can understand (Wester & Borders, 2011). Therefore, in addition to conducting rigorous, high-quality research, counselors are also expected to clearly communicate their findings to others. Within the Results section of single-case research design (SCRD) studies, data are commonly presented graphically for each participant of interest and collectively for a study (Wolery, Dunlap, & Ledford, 2011). Graphs are essential in single-case research because visual analysis continues to be the traditional method for determining meaningful effects, although it is not without criticism (Parker & Hagan-Burke, 2007). Reporting visual inspection results along with a nonparametric or overlap metric indicating the degree of treatment effect is preferred (see Lenz, 2013; Vannest & Ninci, 2015). Furthermore, including a graph within the Results section provides readers with multiple pieces of information at one time and allows readers to make their own interpretation of treatment effects. Conventionally, the dependent variable is located on the ordinate ory-axis and the temporal variable is located on the abscissa or x-axis (Barlow, Nock, & Hersen, 2009). As with other research designs, there are numerous ways to effectively communicate the results of single-case studies. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the reporting procedures and essential components needed for SCRDs. General Categories of Reporting Before reporting study outcomes, it is important to share information related to procedural integrity and data collection measures. These processes often include (a) interobserver agreement (IOA), (b) treatment fidelity, and (c) any unforeseen circumstances that occurred during data collection. Next, measures of treatment effect are commonly reported. Study Processes That Affect the Outcome IOA. Counselors' perceptions of a participant's response can vary, and when this occurs, confidence issues are introduced in data recording that may lead to inaccurate conclusions. IOA assesses the precision of the measurement procedures used by the researcher and brings credibility to one's findings. Therefore; it is helpful to have a second clinician check scores on permanent products (e.g., assessment protocols) or observe clients (i.e., behavioral observations). Typically, a minimum of 30% of permanent products (Kennedy, 2005) and at least 20% of behavioral observations (Kratochwill & Levin, 2010) should be reviewed per phase. Numerous statistical methods are available to calculate IOA (e.g., permanent product agreement, Cohen's kappa, prevalence and bias-adjusted kappa--ordinal scale). However, the selection of a specific method depends on the data recording procedures and the dimension of the target behavior being measured (Gast, 2010). One common and relatively simple method used to calculate IOA for frequency data is applying a simple point-to-point agreement formula for each observation. The total number of agreements and disagreements are calculated, then agreements are divided by agreements plus disagreements, and then the value is multiplied by 100 (Kazdin, 2011). To analyze interval data, a total agreement formula can be used. …