Confronta i metodi

	Esperimento Pilota sul Campo	Esperimento sul Campo	Trial Controllato Randomizzato (RCT)
Campo	Disegno sperimentale	Disegno sperimentale	Disegno sperimentale
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Hypothesis test
Anno di origine	Mid-20th century (systematised 1960s–1990s)	1920s–1930s (agriculture); 1990s–2000s (social sciences)	1948
Ideatore	Rooted in Campbell & Stanley (1966) experimental design tradition; formalised in clinical and social research through the 20th century	Formalized by R. A. Fisher (1935); systematized in social sciences by Harrison & List (2004)	James Lind (early precursor, 1747); modern formulation: Austin Bradford Hill & Medical Research Council (1948)
Tipo	Experimental design	Experimental design	Interventional comparative study
Fonte seminale	Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Rand McNally. ISBN: 978-0395307878	Harrison, G. W., & List, J. A. (2004). Field experiments. Journal of Economic Literature, 42(4), 1009–1055.	Schulz, K.F., Altman, D.G., Moher, D., for the CONSORT Group (2010). CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomised Trials. BMJ, 340, c332.
Alias	pilot field trial, small-scale field experiment, feasibility field experiment, exploratory field experiment	field trial, natural field experiment, randomized field experiment, field RCT	RCT, randomised controlled trial, clinical trial, Randomize Kontrollü Çalışma (RCT) Tasarımı
Correlati	3	5	7
Sintesi	A pilot field experiment is a small-scale, preliminary version of a planned full field experiment conducted in a naturalistic setting. It tests whether the intervention, randomisation procedure, measurement instruments, and logistical protocols are feasible before committing to a full-scale study. Results inform sample size calculations, refine treatment protocols, and identify procedural risks — saving resources and improving the quality of the definitive study.	A field experiment applies the logic of a randomized controlled trial in a naturally occurring, real-world environment rather than an artificial laboratory. Participants are randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions while going about everyday activities, allowing researchers to estimate causal effects with high internal validity while preserving a level of ecological realism that laboratory settings cannot offer. The design is especially prominent in economics, public health, political science, and development research.	A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the gold standard experimental design in clinical and health research, in which participants are randomly allocated to a treatment group or a control group so that the effect of an intervention can be measured with the highest possible degree of internal validity. The modern parallel-group RCT was formalized by Austin Bradford Hill and the Medical Research Council in their landmark streptomycin trial of 1948, and its reporting is governed today by the CONSORT 2010 guidelines (Schulz et al., 2010).