Introduction: Transcendental realism, the philosophical perspective dealing with the
existence of causal powers governed by universal laws of nature, provides a useful …

The naturally occurring complexity of the social and natural worlds, along with rising
challenges in the social, health and environmental domains, makes retroduction a …

The realist review/synthesis has become an increasingly prominent methodological
approach to evidence synthesis that can inform policy and practice. While there are …

Background Critical realism (alternatively termed transcendental or complex realism) is most
closely associated with the early works of the philosopher Roy Bhaskar. It has been …

Background Some realists have criticised randomised controlled trials for their inability to
explain the causal relations that they identify; to take into account the influence of the social …

Realist review has increased in popularity as a methodology for complex intervention
assessment. Our experience suggests that the process of designing a realist review requires …

This set of articles aims to foster more realist research in social science. In this introduction I
first say what is special about being „realist‟ in social research. Then I give glimpses of the …

In this paper, we respond to a paper by Jamal and colleagues published in Trials in October
2015 and take an opportunity to continue the much-needed debate about what applied …

This working paper has been thoroughly revised and superseded by two distinct articles,
both available at SSRN. The first focuses on developing theory with literature reviews: Okoli …

Mixed methods studies in social sciences are predominantly employed to explore broad,
complex, and multifaceted issues and to evaluate policies and interventions. The integration …