"Do Family Services Help?": A Response

Abstract

The extensive use of charts with a minimum of supporting tables, referred to by Schuerman (p. 365) as an unhappy compromise, should be seen in the context of a different goal-to maximize the utilization of the findings for the improvement of practice. Too often researchers direct the content and style of their reporting primarily to other researchers. This practice discourages utilization by practitioners and fosters a closed circle of communication among researchers within the proverbial ivory tower. To increase the readability and utility of the report for a much wider circle, we chose to feature charts, to minimize tables, and to subordinate technical details in footnotes and appendices. The only financially viable alternative-publication of hundreds of tables with few or no charts-would, in our view, have meant effectively relegating the report to undisturbed repose on dusty library shelves. In retrospect, as judged by the many and varied postpublication uses of the charts and other findings, substitution of charts for the traditional research table format has, in our opinion, substantially increased the impact of the findings on agency service. To accommodate to researchers' need for case counts, we originally