Systematic Review of Gaps in Single Case Design Research: Evaluation of Study Quality and Rigor Using the Single Case Analysis and Review Framework

Abstract

As the use of single case research design (SCRD) to answer socially significant research questions increases, so too should the rigor and quality of those designs. Higher rigor and quality decreases the chance of threats to internal validity and increases the chance of replication, both of which are critical to determining the effectiveness of an intervention. We conducted a systematic review of systematic literature reviews (k =18) that scored the quality and rigor of SCRD papers using the Single Case Analysis and Review Framework (SCARF; Ledford et al., 2023). On a continuous rigor/quality scale of 0-4, the 1,251 articles in all included reviews obtained an average of 2.14 with a standard deviation of 0.62 suggesting large gaps in the rigor/quality of SCRD. We discuss the implications of these gaps and offer recommendations for researchers to increase the rigor and quality of their SCRD studies.