The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations offers a comprehensive overview of research processes in social science - from the ideation and design of research projects, through the construction of theoretical arguments, to conceptualization, measurement, & data collection, and quantitative & qualitative empirical analysis - exposited through 65 major new contributions from leading international methodologists. Each chapter surveys, builds upon, and extends the modern state of the art in its area. Following through its six-part organization, undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practicing academics will be guided through the design, methods, and analysis of issues in Political Science and International Relations: Part One: Formulating Good Research Questions & Designing Good Research Projects Part Two: Methods of Theoretical Argumentation Part Three: Conceptualization & Measurement Part Four: Large-Scale Data Collection & Representation Methods Part Five: Quantitative-Empirical Methods Part Six: Qualitative & "Mixed" Methods
Preface: So You're a Grad Student Now? Maybe You Should Do This - Gary King Part 1: Formulating Good Research Questions & Designing Good Research Projects Chapter 1: Asking Interesting Questions - William Roberts Clark Chapter 2: From Questions and Puzzles to Research Project - Andrea Ruggeri & Adam McCauley Chapter 3: The Simple, the Trivial, and the Insightful: Field Dispatches from a Formal Theorist - Branislav Slantchev Chapter 4: Evidence-Driven Computational Modeling - Ravinder Bhavnani, Karsten Donnay & Mirko Reul Chapter 5: Taking Data Seriously in the Design of Data Science Projects - Mitchell Goist and Burt L. Monroe Chapter 6: Designing Qualitative Research Projects: Notes on Theory Building, Case Selection, and Field Research - Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos Chapter 7: Theory Building for Causal Inference: EITM Research Projects - Thomas Braeuninger & Tilko Swalve Chapter 8 EITM: Applications in Political Science and International Relations - John Aldrich & Jim Granato Part 2: Methods of Theoretical Argumentation Chapter 9: Political Psychology, Social Psychology and Behavioral Economics - Rose McDermott Chapter 10: Institutional Theory and Method - Maxfield J. Peterson & B. Guy Peters Chapter 11: Applied Game Theory: An overview and first thoughts on the use of Game Theoretic Tools - Adam Meirowitz & Kris Ramsay Chapter 12: The Spatial-Voting Model - James Adams, Samuel Merrill III & Roi Zur Chapter 13: New Directions in Veto Bargaining: Message Legislation, Virtue Signaling, and Electoral Accountability - Charles Cameron & Nathan Gibson Chapter 14: Models of Coalition Politics: Recent Developments and New Directions - Lanny Martin & Georg Vanberg Chapter 15: Models of Interstate Conflict - James Morrow & Jessica S. Sun Chapter 16: Models of the Judiciary & Judicial Politics - Deborah Beim Chapter 17: Wrestling with complexity in computational social science: theory, estimation, and representation - Scott De Marchi & Brandon Stewart Chapter 18: Evaluating Approaches for Modeling Learning within Diffusion Episodes - Scott LaCombe & Frederick J. Boehmke Part 3: Conceptualization & Measurement Chapter 19: Conceptualization and Measurement: Basic Distinctions and Guidelines - Gerardo L. Munck, Jorgen Moller & Svend-Erik Skaaning Chapter 20: Measurement Models - Christopher Fariss, Michael Kenwick & Kevin Reuning Chapter 21: Measuring Attitudes - Multilevel Modeling with Post-Strati?cation (MrP) - Leemann Lucas & Fabio Wasserfallen Part 4: Large-Scale Data Collection & Representation Methods Chapter 22: Web data collection: Potentials and challenges - Dominic Nyhuis Chapter 23: How to Use Social Media Data for Political Science Research - Pablo Barbera & Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld Chapter 24: Spatial data - David Darmofal & Christopher Eddy Chapter 25: Visualizing data in political science - Richard Traunmueller Chapter 26: Text as data: an overview - Ken Benoit Chapter 27: Scaling Political Positions from Text: Assumptions, Methods and Pitfalls - Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod & Robert Klemmensen Chapter 28: Classification and Clustering - Sarah B. Bouchat Chapter 29: Sentiment analysis and social media - Luigi Curini & Robert Fahey Chapter 30: Big Relational Data: Network-Analytic Measurement - Ernesto Calvo, Joan Timoneda & Tiago Ventura Part 5: Quantitative-Empirical Methods Chapter 31: Econometric Modeling: From Measurement, Prediction, and Causal Inference to Causal Response Estimation - Robert Franzese Chapter 32: A Principle Approach to Time Series Analysis - Suzanna Linn & Clayton Webb Chapter 33: Time-Series-Cross-Section Analysis - Vera Troeger Chapter 34: Dynamic Systems of Equations - Mark Pickup Chapter 35: Duration Analysis - Kentaro Fukumoto Chapter 36: Multilevel Analysis - Marco Steenbergen Chapter 37:Selection Bias in Political Science & International Relations Applications - Tobias Boehmelt & Gabriele Spilker Chapter 38: Dyadic Data Analysis - Eric Neumayer & Thomas Pluemper Chapter 39: Model Specification and Spatial Interdependence - Scott J. Cook, Jude C. Hays & Robert J. Franzese Chapter 40: Instrumental variables: From structural equation models to design-based causal inference - Christopher L. Carter & Thad Dunning Chapter 41: Causality and Design-Based Inference - Jake Bowers & Thomas Leavitt Chapter 42: Statistical Matching with Time-Series Cross-Sectional Data: Magic, Malfeasance, or Something in Between? - Richard A. Nielsen Chapter 43: Differences-in-Differences: Neither Natural nor an Experiment - Luke Keele Chapter 44: The Regression Discontinuity Design - Matias D. Cattaneo, Rocio Titiunik & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare Chapter 45: Network-Analysis: Theory and Testing - Jennifer Victor & Elsa T. Khwaja Chapter 46: Network Modeling: Estimation, Inference, Comparison, and Selection - John P. Schoeneman & Bruce A. Desmarais Chapter 47: Bayesian Methods in Political Science - Jong Hee Park & Sooahn Shin Chapter 48: Bayesian Ideal-Point Estimation - Shawn Treier Chapter 49: Bayesian Model Selection, Model Comparison, and Model Averaging - Florian M. Hollenbach & Jacob M. Montgomery Chapter 50: Bayesian Modeling and Inference: A Postmodern Perspective - Jeff Gill & Simon Heuberger Chapter 51: Laboratory Experimental Methods in Political Science - Rebecca Morton & Mateo Vasquez-Cortes Chapter 52: Field Experiments on the Frontier: Designing Better - Betsy Sinclair Chapter 53: Field Experiments, Theory, and External Validity - Anna Maria Wilke & Macartan Humphries Chapter 54: Survey Experiments and the Quest for Valid Interpretation - Gustavo Diaz, Christopher Grady & James H. Kuklinski Chapter 55: Deep Learning for Political Science - Kakia Chatsiou & Slava Jankin Mikhaylov Chapter 56: Machine Learning in Political Science: Supervised Learning Models - Kelsey Shoub & Santiago Olivella Part 6: Qualitative & "Mixed" Methods Chapter 57: Set theoretic methods - Adrian Du?a Chapter 58: Mixed-methods design - Imke Harbers & Matthew C. Ingram Chapter 59: Case study methods: case selection and case analysis - Chiara Ruffa Chapter 60: Comparative Analyses of Foreign Policy - Klaus Brummer Chapter 61: When Talk Isn't Cheap: Opportunities and Challenges in Interview Research - Claire Greenstein & Layna Mosley Chapter 62: Focus Groups: From Qualitative Data Generation to Analysis - Virginie Van Ingelgom Chapter 63: Interpretive Approaches in Political Science and International Relations - Xymena Kurowska & Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
For scholars seeking credible research designs, this is an indispensable volume. The methods are wide-ranging and on the cutting edge, and the authors are an all-star cast of leading experts. -- Anna Grzymala-Busse This is an extraordinarily comprehensive handbook on the current state of the art in research methods for political science. The roster of authors is both stellar and extensive. No single person knows this much about all this material. So all serious researchers can benefit from having this handbook on their shelves, whether to expand the scope of their own work or to enhance their reading of the work of others. -- Michael Laver Since the dawn of the twenty-first century there has been an explosion of methods in the social and natural sciences. As data has gotten bigger and bigger, we have been developing new tools to acquire, analyze, and synthesize all these bits and bytes, and this has led to nothing short of a revolution in political science. The very leaders of this revolution have come together in these volumes to show the way, with both deep insight and engaging connections to the biggest substantive problems of our day. This is literally the dream team of political science, and they are explaining in plain language exactly how to live on the cutting edge. As someone deeply committed to both learning and teaching new methods, I can't think of another book I would rather have on my shelf. -- James Fowler This handbook provides the reader with a very broad overview of research methods in political science. With chapters authored by notable senior and junior methodologists and applicants, it does not only cover a wide range of techniques, but also places methods within their context, such as research designs. This book is an excellent companion for researchers of all steps of their career who are about to find their way through the jungle of methodological offers. -- Claudius Wagemann This is a very impressive and broad collection of authors and essays. This book will be my, and my students', first stop in exploring any topic in political methodology. The editors provide an important service to the discipline. -- John Jackson The Sage Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations has wide coverage from leading scholars and practitioners. There is definitely something for everyone to learn while emphasizing accessibility for all as well. -- Janet Box-Steffensmeier
