BACKGROUND Many areas of biology are open to mathematical and computational modelling. The application of discrete, logical formalisms defines the field of biomedical ontologies. Ontologies have been put to many uses in bioinformatics. The most widespread is for description of entities about which data have been collected, allowing integration and analysis across multiple resources. There are n...

Change is central to critical realism yet there has been little theoretical explication on the temporal dimension. It is shown that this oversight results in Archer’s morphogenetic approach employing an ontological dualism of cyclical and linear temporalities similar to that contained within Giddens’ structuration theory. Consequently, neither Archer nor Giddens is able to explain change and th...

Contents: Introduction 1. The nature of programmes and how they work 2. Basic concepts in the explanation and understanding of programmes 3. Strategies and methods of realist evaluation 4. Realism's place in the policy cycle: formative, summative and synthetic approaches 5. The nature, presentation and use of findings from realist evaluation 6. Conclusion: strengths, limitations and relationshi...

Realist evaluation is a method increasingly adopted to provide an understanding of how and why program works, for whom, under what circumstances. Initial theories (IPT) are the crucial starting point any realist evaluation, however descriptions about they developed in practice remain under-reported published literature. This article argues value genuine research-group conversations using David ...

In the light of recent writings of Richard Pring, and in relation to the application of empirical research methods in education, this paper offers a corrective to a neo-realist viewpoint and develops a critical realist perspective. The argument is made that the deployment of empirical research methods needs to be underpinned by a meta-theory embracing epistemological and ontological elements; t...