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causes and effects of knowledge creation, diffusion, and utilization. The term &dquo;design&dquo; refers to plans, strategies, or approaches that specify conditions under which these causal inferences may be justified. The primary purpose of research design is to raise questions of causal inference to a level of explicit consciousness where rival hypotheses may be systematically considered and weighed. Research design thus provides answers to research questions within a framework of reflective causal reasoning.This and previous issues of RESEARCH IN PROGRESS (see Dunn, 1983) are based on results of an 18-month project supported by the National Institute of Education. One of the main objectives of this project was to construct design profiles of knowledge utilization studies conducted to date. These profiles, constructed for more than 50 studies, were based on a standard coding format that captures a variety of design characteristics (e.g., unit of analysis, sampling frame, methods of data collection) that affect the capacity of investigators to make plausible causal inferences.

7he Allegheny County Neighborhood Preservation Program has generated over $ve million dollars worth of housing rehabilitation in the three years in which it has been operating. 7his article is an evaluation of Phase I of the program. It compares loan recipients and non-recipients in order to determine which of the program components are the most important, which factors influence a households investment decision, and what effect investment has on the perceptions of residents regarding the quality of both housing and the neighborhood.