2006 - School of Social Service Administration - University of Chicago

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
CLIENT-ORIENTED, PRACTICAL,
EVIDENCE SEARCH (COPES)
By Aaron Willis and Andrew Gill
The following 2 articles employ evidence-based search and evaluation
techniques outlined by Leonard Gibbs (Evidence-based practice for the helping
professions: A practical guide with integrated media [Pacific Grove, CA:
Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning, 2003]). According to Gibbs:
[Evidence-based practice places] the client’s benefits first, evidence-based
practitioners adopt a process of lifelong learning that involves continually
posing specific questions of direct practical importance to clients,
searching objectively and efficiently for the current best evidence relative
to each question, and taking appropriate action guided by evidence
(2003, p. 6).
In line with this definition, the following 2 articles, one by Andrew Gill
and another by Aaron Willis, draw upon their clinical experiences to address
specific questions relevant to their clients. These questions guide and are
in turn shaped by what Gibbs (2003) describes as a Client-Oriented, Practical,
Evidence Search (COPES) process, which directs the search effort by formulating
a COPES question. This process is client-oriented because it has direct
relevance to the life of the client. It is practical because the answer to the
COPES question could directly affect the way a clinician or an agency serves
clients. Finally, the question must guide an evidence search of the literature.
The process of formulating a succinct COPES question and conducting a
specific evidence-based literature search is a valuable skill for practitioners.
Indeed, a poorly defined question can inundate a clinician with irrelevant and
overly generalized search results, while a COPES question defines and limits
search parameters. Similarly, a poorly conducted and constrained search can
generate literature findings with inadequate research designs. However, a wellplanned
and well-formulated literature search can be designed to produce
the most pertinent and client-centered research. Gibbs’s search and evaluation
techniques (2003) help practitioners to ask precise questions and perform
efficient literature searches, thereby locating the best available research.
© 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.