Skip to contentScholarGate
LibraryBookshelfDeskReview StudioAssistant
Sign in
Most Significant Change/Evidence
Method evidence record

Most Significant Change

The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a participatory, story-based approach to monitoring and evaluation developed by Rick Davies and refined with Jess Dart. It involves the systematic collection of stories of significant change from the field and the deliberative selection of the most significant of these by panels of stakeholders. There are no predefined indicators; instead, value judgements about what change matters most are made transparently by those involved, making MSC especially suited to capturing unexpected and qualitative outcomes in complex programs.

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Source record

Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.

Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique
Taxonomic method record · process-pipeline / public-policy
  • Davies, R., & Dart, J. (2005). The 'Most Significant Change' (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use. · URL
Open full method

Curated claims

Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.

No curated claims yet

This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.

Related methods

Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.

Taxonomic bucketEmpowerment Evaluationmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketOutcome Harvestingmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketOutcome Mappingmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketParticipatory Evaluationmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.

Evidence status

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Bibliographic sources are present. Claim-level evidence review has not been performed.

Sources

1 recorded citation, copied from the method source record.

Actions

Open method page
ScholarGate

A content-first reference library for research methods — what each one is, how it works, and where it comes from.

Open data (CC-BY)

Explore

  • Library
  • Search the library…
  • Browse by field
  • Fields
  • Journey
  • Compare
  • Which method?

Reference

  • Subjects
  • Atlas
  • Glossary
  • Methodology
  • Philosophy

Your tools

  • Bookshelf
  • Desk
  • Chat

Company

  • About
  • Pricing
  • Contact
  • Suggest a method

Entries are compiled from published sources for reference. Verifying the accuracy and suitability of any information for your own use remains your responsibility.

© 2026 ScholarGate · A research-method reference library
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Terms
  • Delete account