Advice for young social work investigators: Interview with Allen Rubin, Ph.D.

[Episode 38] In today's podcast, I continue my conversation with Dr. Allen Rubin about social work research. Allen shared his advice for young social work investigators - that is social work researchers who are just starting out in their career as researchers. Allen talks about the value of getting a postdoc, the importance of getting hooked up with a federally-funded investigator for social workers interested doing federally-funded research, having good relationships with social work agencies, and the challenges of actually doing social work research. Allen shared his thoughts on the problems with so-called hot methodologies and the realities of pursuing federal funding.


Download MP3 [24:29]



Dr. Rubin is the Jean Kantambu Latting College Professorship of Leadership and Social Change  at the University of Houston.

At the time of the interview, Dr. Rubin was the Bert Kruger Smith Centennial Professor in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin, where he had been a faculty member since 1979. He served as an editorial reviewer for 14 professional journals, was a founding member of the Society for Social Work and Research and served as its vice president from 1996 to 1998 and then as its president from 1998 to 2000. He is the recipient of many awards, including the co-recipient of the Society for Social Work and Research Award for Outstanding Examples of Published Research, the 1993 recipient of the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work's Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the 2007 recipient of the Council On Social Work Education's Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Rubin continues to be a big fan the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.

Dr. Rubin can be heard talking about research for social work practitioners [Episode 37] and his current research and publishing projects [Episode 39] at the Social Work Podcast. This series of interviews was recorded using Skype.

References and Resources

• National Association for Social Workers (n.d.). What IS social work research?. http://www.socialworkers.org/research/researchMore.asp [electronic resource]
• National Institute of Mental Health (n.d.). Information for Researchers - Grants. NIMH website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research-funding/grants/index.shtml
• Rubin, A. (2012). Statistics for Evidence-Based Practice and Evaluation, 3rd Edition. Wadsworth.
• Rubin, A. & Bellamy, J. (2012). Practitioner's Guide to Using Research for Evidence-Based Practice, 2nd Edition. Wiley.
• Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. (2013). Research Methods for Social Work, 8th Edition. Wadsworth.
• Singer, J. B. (Host) (2007, August 13). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part I): Strategies and writing tips [Episode 22]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved April 27, 2008, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing.html
• Singer, J. B. (Host) (2007, August 21). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part II): The narrative, budget and appendices [Episode 23]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved April 27, 2008, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing_21.html

APA (6th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Host). (2008, April 28). Advice for young social work investigators: Interview with Allen Rubin, Ph.D. [Episode 38]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2008/04/advice-for-young-social-work.html