Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Article Citation and Summary Search 
Database Content Description

Policy makers, practitioners, program managers, and researchers need data about how conflict resolution works, not just in theory, but in practice. Empirical information about conflict resolution can be hard to find, because it may be published in any of a number of forms and disciplines.  Studies appear in academic journals, legal periodicals, and government publications.  Researchers may come from any of a number of academic disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, business, communications, criminal justice, economics, government, human resource management, industrial relations, international affairs, law, organizational behavior, political science, psychology, public affairs, and sociology.  We at the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute have tried to make this information more accessible to the public through this searchable database.

This database seeks to provide a comprehensive list of empirical field studies and program evaluations on conflict resolution. While it is still under construction, the database includes evaluations of conflict resolution including juvenile court, international, employment, environmental, and labor relations programs.  The list of evaluations continues to grow and should not be considered exhaustive. We recognize that what appears here is still incomplete, and welcome suggestions for studies to add. Our selection criteria for a study are as follows:

1)      the study must examine some form of conflict resolution, including but not limited to arbitration, conciliation, facilitation, fact-finding, mediation, and ombuds offices;

2)      the study must use qualitative or quantitative social science methods; and

3)      the study must examine actual cases, not simulations or experiments, and preferably look at more than a single case.

We recognize that there is a substantial and growing experimental literature on negotiation and dispute resolution that is of great value. In addition, there are a number of excellent case studies. However, our resource constraints forced us to make hard choices.  Field studies and program evaluations often escape organized citation indices, and are harder to find. We chose to concentrate on these.

The database contains bibliographic information about each of the evaluations as well as brief summaries of the evaluations, where available.  Institute staff and graduate students at the School for Public and Environmental Affairs have written the summaries of the evaluations as part of a service-learning project.  The summaries describe the type of program evaluated, the evaluation design and methods used, and the evaluation's findings and conclusions.  The summaries are not meant to substitute for the article, but rather to provide the reader with greater context about the evaluation. We hope you will find these useful.

The database of evaluations as well as summaries of selected evaluations are available on the Institute website.

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Last updated: July 30, 2004
Comments: ICRI Administrator
Copyright 1999 - Indiana University, Bloomington