Research methods in politics : a practical guide / Roger Pierce.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [330]-334) and index.

1. Introduction -- 2. Power in Research, Ethics, Data Protection and Bias -- 3. The Philosophy and Principles of Research -- 4. Qualitative Versus Quantitative Methods: A Relevant Argument? -- 5. Collecting Data Sets: Case Studies, Experimental, Comparative, Longitudinal and Action Research Methods -- 6. Critically Evaluating Published Research -- 7. Evaluating Information: Validity, Reliability, Accuracy, Triangulation -- 8. Completing a Literature Review: Accessing Published ([beta]) Information -- 9. Asking Questions: Effective Elite Interviews, Other Interviews, Vignettes, Projective Questions, and Focus Groups -- 10. Questionnaire Surveys -- 11. Observation -- 12. Analysing Research Data: The Process -- 13. Calculating and Interpreting Descriptive Statistics -- 14. Using and Understanding Inferential Statistics -- 15. Testing for Association -- 16. Applying Factor Analysis and Other Advanced Techniques -- 17. Analysing Qualitative Information: Classifying, Coding and Interpreting Information -- 18. Using Content Analysis -- 19. Understanding and Adopting Discourse and Narrative Analysis -- 20. Writing-up.

Packed with features to promote learning this text is ideal for use on an introductory methods course or for readers carrying out their own research project. It presents: - an overview of the philosophy and principles of research - qualitative and quantitative research methods and research design - a critical review of selected methods - methods of gathering information, such as interviews and focus groups, and discusses issues associated with ensuring quality of information - appropriate methods for analysing and interpreting data, and covers the process of communicating research. The inclusion of chapter objectives, regular summaries, questions for discussion and tasks and assignments, makes this the must-have text for researching politics.