A comparative study of social impact assessment tools in social research

Considering that social impact assessment is a social prerequisite for solving social problems andinefficiencies, and even one of the most important starting points for economic growth, and providesopportunities for fundamental application of the foundations of sustainable development. Therefore, it isnecessary to pay attention to the social dimension and focus on assessing this dimension in order to provide ageneral conclusion of the social impacts of sustainable development measures and programmes. However,literature studies show that there are few studies on the description and interpretation of social impactassessment methods despite the importance and attractiveness of assessing this dimension in sustainabledevelopment measures. Despite the availability of metrics to measure social impact, it is difficult to choose toolsthat meet the exact needs of social science researchers. In order to address this challenge, the main goal of thecurrent research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the common and widely used tools for measuringsocial effects in social projects, which has been done using a systematic review of the subject literature. Fromthis point of view, in this study, the model of George Z. L. Brady has been used as one of the most importantstandard methods for the comparative comparison of these tools in the form of four stages of description,interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison. The results show that there is not always one best method andeach method definitely does not rule out other methods. On the other hand, each method is not better thananother method, and the choice of the best method depends on factors such as the research field, research topic,research design, choosing suitable and appropriate methods, reviewing the choices made, re-examining thequestions, the nature of the problem, and others. There are underlying factors.