Randomised Controlled Trials in the Social Sciences - Thirteenth Annual Conference

5, 6 and 7 September 2018

We are pleased to announce the thirteenth annual RCTs in the Social Sciences conference. The conference will be an opportunity for delegates to share expertise, interests, and concerns about conducting trials in all fields of social sciences.

The conference will be held on 5, 6 and 7 September, at King's Manor, University of York and is jointly organised by Professor David Torgerson (University of York, York Trials Unit, Department of Health Sciences), Professor Catherine Hewitt (University of York, York Trials Unit, Department of Health Sciences) and Dr Ben Styles (National Foundation for Education Research).

The Conference will open on Wednesday 5 September at 9.30 am and will close on Thursday 6 September at 4.30 pm. The registration fee includes lunch and refreshments on both days. The conference dinner will be held on the evening of Wednesday 5 September 2018.

The Conference will include one keynote presentation and 2 invited presentations and contributed presentations on all aspects of randomised trials in the social sciences.

Workshop - 7 September 2018

The half-day conference workshop will be organised by Caroline Fairhurst (Senior Statistician, York Trials Unit) and Catherine Hewitt (Professor of Trials and Statistics, York Trials Unit) and will include a presentation from James Carpenter who is a leading methodologist in missing data (Professor of Medical Statistics at LSHTM and Programme Leader in Methodology, MRC Clinical Trials Unit).

This workshop will explore the topical issue of “Missing data in randomised controlled trials - what are the causes, and what can we do about it?” There will be several presentations on aspects of the circumstances in which missing data in trials may occur, practical interventions to try to minimise missing data, the implications of missing data, and potential statistical approaches to missing data analysis. Delegates will have the opportunity to share and discuss their own experiences and queries.

The workshop will start at 9.00 am and will finish with a sandwich lunch at 1.00 pm.

For further information about the conference and workshop, please contact Sally Baker (sally.baker@york.ac.uk).

Presentations

The following presentations were given at the 2018 Randomised Controlled Trials Conference and are now available to download.

Wednesday 5th September

Invited Speaker: Michael Sanders - Pragmatism in Government and in 2018 – where are we now? Please contact Michael Sanders's PA Lauren Yates (lauren.yates@bi.team) for further information about this presentation.
Maiken Pontoppidan - Randomised Controlled Trials in Scandinavian Educational Research (PDF , 1,144kb)
Anneka Dawson - Methodological Challenges in Education RCTs (PDF , 164kb)
Invited Speaker: David Torgerson - Allocation subversion and meta-analysis (PDF , 1,055kb)
Gianluca Argentin, Gian Paolo Barbetta, Mario Maggioni, Domenico Rossignoli - Is Service Learning an Effective Tool to Promote Pro-Social Attitudes and Prevent Dropping Out? Evidence from the Intervention “Not only at School”. Please contact Gian Paolo Barbetta (gianpaolo.barbetta@unicatt.it) for further information about this presentation.
Mira Aaboen Sletten, Ira Malmberg-Heimonen, Anne Greta Toge - Effects of an Early Warning System on Student Absence and Dropout in Norwegian Upper Secondary Schools: A Cluster Randomised Evaluation of the IKO-Model. Please contact Mira Sletten (masle@oslomet.no) for further information about this presentation.
Ira Malmberg-Heimonen, Anne Grete Toge - A Cluster-Randomised Study Evaluating a New Way for Social Work Professionals to Follow-up Low Income Families in Norway (PDF , 1,256kb)

Thursday 6th September

Keynote Speaker: Don Green - Adaptive Trials in the Social Sciences: Prospects and Pitfalls (PDF , 867kb)
Becci Newton - Testing Times: Lessons from the Evaluation of the 18-21 Work Skills Pilot (PDF , 554kb)
Ann Cochrane, Alison Booth, David Torgerson, Catherine Hewitt, Alex Mitchell, Julie Parkes, Sara Morgan, Benjamin Taylor - Methodological and Practical Challenges of Undertaking a Randomised Controlled Trial in a Police Custody and Community Setting (PDF , 1,506kb)
L Stuttard, B Beresford, C Hewitt, C Fairhurst, E Mayhew - Evaluating Hearing Dog Partnerships: Learning from Designing and Implementing a Randomised Controlled Trial with a Third Sector Organisation (PDF , 955kb)
Pippa Lord - A Multi-Armed, Multi-Partner, Multi-Cohort Trial – the Charms and Challenges of Literacy Octopus (PDF , 574kb)
Mario Maggioni, Domenico Rossignoli, Bowen Paulle, Joppe de Ree, Dawid Walentek - High Dosage Math Tutoring in Amsterdam: School Performances and Pro-Social Attitudes. Please contact Domenico Rossignoli (domenico.rossignoli@unicatt.it) for further information about this presentation.
Anne Grete Toge, Ira Malmberg-Heimonen - Effects of a Comprehensive Model for Follow-up of Low-Income Families in Norway: A Cluster Randomised Study. Please contact Anne-Grete Toge (anne-grete.toge@afi.hioa.no) for further information about this presentation.
Moira Nicolson, Annabelle Bonus, Laura Brouwer, Fiona Cochrane-Williams, Beth Moon and Roger Tyers - When is an Intervention Good Enough to Implement? Using Treatment Effects, Cost-Effectiveness and Policy Expertise to Determine When an Intervention Should be Scaled up (PDF , 1,196kb)

Friday 7th September

Workshop presentation: James Carpenter - Randomised Controlled Trials in the Social Sciences Conference; Missing Data in Randomised Trials — Overview and Strategies (PDF , 604kb)
Additional reading: James Carpenter - Multiple Imputation based Sensitivity Analysis (PDF , 690kb)