Too often, overzealous politicians rally voter support to initiate public policies based on little or no solid evidence to back them up. Many of these policies are rooted in social, behavioral and educational interventions that frequently prove ineffective, even causing more harm than good. An international network of interdisciplinary scholars, professionals and policymakers called the Campbell Collaboration hopes to change that.

Formed in 1999 by 80 individuals representing 12 nations, the Campbell Collaboration promotes evidence-based policy-making through access to information. By synthesizing the results from multiple studies and expanding the depth of reliable research knowledge available to the public, the non-profit organization intends to help policy makers, researchers and consumers make better and more informed decisions about the policies that affect people's lives.

Volunteer professionals conduct rigorous systematic reviews of research to make sense of large, fragmented and sometimes conflicting knowledge bases in an effort to identify what works, as well as how, why and under what conditions public policies succeed or fail. To accomplish this, Campbell reviewers attempt to unearth research evidence on every randomized trial on a topic - both published and unpublished - and then justify to their colleagues which ones will be excluded from further analysis due to flaws in experimental design. The eventual goal is to build a comprehensive database to enable people who are reviewing the effectiveness of interventions to weigh a thorough body of evidence.

"The meta-analyses performed by scholars in this group and the careful, systematic approach that has characterized the Campbell Collaboration are major contributions to our field of social work as well as to other professions," Dean Marilyn Flynn said. "We look forward to the future consolidation of understanding as the best pathway for advancing social policy, human welfare and professional practice."

The Campbell Collaboration convenes an annual colloquium, bringing together participants from more than 20 nations on more than five continents who represent various governments, social agencies, universities, research organizations, foundations and non-profit and private for-profit organizations. On Feb. 22-24, the USC School of Social Work will host the group's sixth international colloquium, "Producing Systematic Reviews of Evidence," at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles, which will be the organization's first symposium on the West Coast.

"We're pleased to welcome respected scholars from all over the world to a premier academic event right here in our backyard," said Haluk Soydan, co-director of the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work and co-chair of the Campbell Collaboration Steering Group. "Colloquium participants have enthusiastically embraced the idea of evidence-based social policy and providing a stronger basis for political action."

The scientific program will include presentations on methodological research and developments that support the mission as well as the development of the collaboration and partner organizations. For more information, visit www.campbellcollaboration.org or www.campbellcolloquium.org.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Judith Gueron
Visiting Scholar
Russell Sage Foundation
President Emerita of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
"Building Evidence: What It Takes and What It Yields"

Plenary Speaker

Dr. Joan Petersilia
Visiting Professor
Stanford Law School
"Can Research Influence Practice? An Embedded Researcher's Critique of California Corrections Reform"

Invited Presenter

Dr. John Ioannidis
Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology
University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece
and Tufts New England Medical Center
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
"Estimating the Odds of Truth in a Research Finding"

Discussants:

Dr. William Shadish
Professor
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
University of California, Merced

Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw
Director and Senior Scientist
Clinical Epidemiology
Ottawa Health Research Institute

2006 Jerry Lee Lecturer

Dr. David Olds
Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, & Preventive Medicine
University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver
Director, Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health
"From Pilots to Policy: Developing, Testing, and Scaling Up the Nurse Family Partnership"

Discussants:

Dr. Robert Boruch
University Trustee Chair Professor
Graduate School of Education and the Statistics Department
Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Jacquelyn McCroskey
John Milner Professor of Child Welfare
School of Social Work
University of Southern California