Research Methods in the Social Sciences: An A-Z of key concepts

Research Methods in the Social Sciences is a comprehensive yet compact A-Z for undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking research across the social sciences, featuring 71 entries that cover a wide range of concepts, methods, and theories.

Each entry begins with an accessible introduction to a method, using real-world examples from a wide range of academic disciplines, before discussing the benefits and limitations of the approach, its current status in academic practice, and finally providing tips and advice for readers on when and how to apply the method in their own research. Wide ranging and interdisciplinary, the text covers both well-established concepts and emerging ideas, such as big data and network analysis, for qualitative and quantitative research methods.

All entries feature extensive cross-referencing, providing ease of navigation and, pointing readers to related concepts, and to help build their overall understanding of research methods.

Jean-Fr?d?ric Morin, Full Professor, Political Science Department, Universit? Laval,Christian Olsson, Associate Professor in International Relations, Universit? libre de Bruxelles,Ece ?zlem Atikcan, Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

Jean-Fr?d?ric Morin is Full Professor at Universit? Laval (Canada) and chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in International Political Economy. His current research projects look at the design of environmental treaties, interactions between international institutions, and the governance of space debris. His most recent co-authored books include Global Environmental Politics (OUP, 2020) and Greening through Trade (MIT Press, 2020).

Christian Olsson is Associate Professor at Universit? libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) and Director of its REPI Research Unit (Recherche et Etudes en Politique Internationale). His research concerns the transformations of warfare in the context of Western overseas military operations, the political dynamics of non-state armed groups and the privatization of security and military operations. Recent articles have been published in Millenium, Critical Military Studies and Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

Ece ?zlem Atikcan is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute of the University College London in the UK. Her research combines a theoretical focus on political campaigns, issue framing, politicisation of trade agreements, transnational social movements, and diffusion with a regional focus on the European Union. Her recent work has appeared in European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, Journal of Public Policy, and as books with Cambridge University Press and McGill-Queen's University Press.

0. Introduction
1. Archival Research, Chlo? Bri?re
2. Automated Text Analysis, Yannis Panagis
3. Bayesian Inference, Arnaud Dufays
4. Behaviourism, Olga Herzog
5. Bias, Stephanie Anne Shelton and Aysel K???ksu
6. Big Data, Yannick Dufresne and Brittany Davidson
7. Boolean Algebra, Jasmin Hasic
8. Case Selection, Laura Gelhaus and Dirk Leuffen
9. Case Study, Jessica Luciano Gomes and Miriam Gomes Saraiva
10. Causation, Vivien Sierens and Ramona Coman
11. Comparative Analysis, C?line C. Cocq and Ora Szekely
12. Concept Construction, Louis B?langer & Pierre-Marc Daigneault
13. Content Analysis, Holli A. Semetko
14. Contextual Analysis, Auke Willems
15. Counterfactual Analysis, Shunsuke Sato
16. Covariance, Virginie Van Ingelgom and Alban Versailles
17. Critical Realism, Dominik Giese and Jonathan Joseph
18. Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies, Andrew Bell
19. Deductive, Inductive, and Retroductive Reasoning, Dominik Giese and Kai-Uwe Schnapp
20. Descriptive, Explanatory, and Interpretive Approaches, Louis Imbeau, Sule Tomkinson and Yasmina Malki
21. Determinism, Predictions, and Probabilism, Fran?ois Depelteau
22. Discourse Analysis, Elisa Narminio and Caterina Carta
23. Endogeneity, Elena Avramovska
24. Epistemology, Gianfranco Pellegrino
25. Ethics in Research, Mark Daku and Laurence Marquis
26. Ethnography, Chowra Makaremi
27. Experiments, Damien Bol
28. Factor Analysis, Ulf Liebe
29. Falsification, Brian D. Earp
30. Focus Groups, Andrew Parker and Jonathan Tritter
31. Formal Modelling, ?rick Duchesne and Arthur Silve
32. Grand Theory and Middle Range Theory, Frederik Ponjaert
33. Hermeneutics, M?lanie Samson
34. Hypotheses, Onna Van Den Broek and Adam William Chalmers
35. Interdisciplinary, Roberto Carrillo and Lidia N??ez
36. Interview Techniques, Marta Matrakova
37. Levels of Analysis, Mauro Caprioli and Claire Dupuy
38. Literature review, Mathieu Ouimet and Pierre-Olivier B?dard
39. Meta-Analysis, No?mie Laurens
40. Methodological Individualism and Holism, Suzan Gibril
41. Mixed Methods, Manfredi Valeriani and Vicki L. Plano Clark
42. Multi-causality and Equifinality, Johann Wolfschwenger and Kevin Lloyd Young
43. Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Geometric Data Analysis, Stephan Davidshofer and Amal Tawfik
44. Nomothetic and Idiographic Methods, Nicky Hayes
45. Observational Methods, Christian Olsson
46. Ontology, Eric Fabri
47. Operationalization, Anne-Laure Mah? and Theodore Mclauchlin
48. Oral History and Life History, Julien Pomar?de
49. Paradigms and Research Programmes, Sheila Dow and Andreas Dimmelmeier
50. Positivism, Post-positivism, and Social Science, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson and Lucas Dolan
51. Process Tracing, Seda G?rkan and Jochem Rietveld
52. Prosopography, Jacob A. Hasselbalch and Leonard Seabrook
53. Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Kevin Kalomeni and Claudius Wagemann
54. Regression Analysis, Kamil Marcinkiewicz and Kai-Uwe Schnapp
55. Replication and Reproducibility, Stefan Schmidt
56. Research Question, Irene Wieczorek and Piergiuseppe Parisi
57. Sampling Techniques, Emilie Van Haute
58. Scientific Realism, Heikki Patom?ki
59. Scope Conditions, Mathilde Gauquelin
60. Sequence Analysis, Thomas Collas and Philippe Blanchard
61. Social Network Analysis, Nicholas Haagensen and Lasse Folke Henriksen
62. Source Criticism, Kenneth Bertrams and Anne Weyembergh
63. Statistical Significance, Olesya Tkacheva
64. Survey Research, Lior Gideon and Kevin Barnes-Ceeney
65. Systems Analysis, Guillaume Beaumier and Didier Wernli
66. Thematic Analysis, Victoria Clarke and Virginia Braun
67. Time Series, Nina Baur and Jannis Hergesell
68. Triangulation, Sabine Caillaud and Uwe Flick
69. Typology, Juraj Halas
70. Unit Analysis and Observation, Kimberly A. Neuendorf
71. Variables, Jean-Fr?d?ric Morin and Alessandra Bonci