Class Introduction to Research Methodologies

This course aims to provide aims to provide students with an introductory approach to the Political Science research. Namely the key questions in  Political Science inquiry, the scientific method; the research design process and the researcher's choices, as well as the problematization of the topic under study, critical analysis and discussion.      

Not applicable

I. Scientific research 1.1 The scientific method 1.1.1. Ontological and epistemological approaches  1.2. The discovery: 1.2.1. The research problem and the political phenomenon II. The research inquiry 2.1. How to choose the topic? The references 2.2. Theory and the state of art 2.3. Research design and the analytical approach 2.4. Data collection and data analysis 2.5. Results  III. Scientific research: practices 3.1. Research and data sources 3.2. Selection and organization of data sources 3.3. Structure and organization of scientific text 3.4. Academic writing, bibliographic referencing and plagiarism

The  syllabus is in line with the learning objectives of the Curricular Unit, namely on key-questions in Political Science and International Relations research.

Della Porta, D. & Keating, M. (2008) Approaches and Methodologies in Social Sciences. A pluralist perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Collier, D & Brady, H. (2010), Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Plymouth, UK: Roman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Gschwend, T. & Schimmelfennig, F. (2014), Research design in political science: how to practice what they preach. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Mahoney, J. & Goertz, G. (2013), A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.