A Primer on Single-Case Research Designs: Contemporary Use and Analysis.

Hatfield et al. (2019) wrote a how-to guide for single-case research designs. The paper shows how to pick a design, guard against threats to validity, and analyze data with both graphs and numbers.

No new data were collected. Instead, the authors pooled current best practices so researchers can prove that their intervention truly caused the change.

The guide boils down to three must-dos: choose the right design for your question, run ongoing validity checks, and mix visual inspection with simple stats. Following these steps makes it easier for reviewers and readers to trust your results.

Hagopian (2020) extends this primer by adding the Consecutive Controlled Case Series. This new option lets you test the same intervention across several clients in a row while keeping single-case logic.

Reichow et al. (2018) and Kirby et al. (2021) supply ready-made checklists that plug straight into the primer's standards. Brian gives a risk-of-bias tool for any single-case study, while Kirby offers 15 fine-grained rules for Repeated Acquisition Designs.

Frazier et al. (2018) narrows the focus even more with the CSCEDARS checklist, made for comparative studies of instruction that can't be reversed. All three papers turn the primer's broad rules into quick tick-box forms.

If you run or supervise single-case studies, treat this paper as your standards map. Pair it with the checklists from Brian et al. or Kirby et al. to catch design flaws before data collection starts. Need to show generality across clients? Add Hagopian's CCCS plan. Using these tools together lifts the quality of your evidence and speeds up peer review.