Summary
Overview
Key Readings
Selecting Research Methods provides advice from prominent social scientists concerning the most crucial steps for planning and undertaking meaningful research: selecting the methods to be used. Contributors to the collection address methodological choices in four stages: design, sampling, coding and measurement, and analysis. The four volumes provide an integrated approach to methodological choice in two ways. First, the contributions range from the early decisions about design options through the concluding choices about analyzing, interpreting, and presenting results. Second, the collection is integrated because it addresses the needs of projects that collect qualitative evidence, quantitative data, or both.
Volume 1 concerns design choice; the articles focus on selecting designs that are effective for answering research questions and achieving the goals of the researcher.
Volume 2 is on sampling ...
Editor's Introduction
The field of research methods in the social sciences is richly endowed with excellent texts and reference works. This makes it relatively easy for a researcher to look up how to employ a particular method – surveys or interviews or regression analysis or grounded theory, and so on. We are less richly endowed with works that help us decide which methods to use, be they cluster sampling, cognitive interviews, multilevel modeling, participant observation, and so on. Which method to use is arguably a more important question than how to use the method. “Which method?” is, at least, a necessary prior question. One cannot look up how to do something until one has decided what that something is.
Planning a research project requires the researcher ...
Table of Contents
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Volume 1: Selecting Designs for Gathering Evidence
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1. Epistemological Diversity and Education Research: Much Ado about Nothing Much?
Harvey Siegel
2006
Educational Researcher
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2. The Poverty of Deductivism: A Constructive Realist Model of Sociological Explanation
Philip Gorski
2004
Sociological Methodology
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3. A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research
James Mahoney | Gary Goertz
2006
Political Analysis
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4. What Good is Polarizing Research into Qualitative and Quantitative?
Kadriye Ercikan | Wolff-Michael Roth
2006
Educational Researcher
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5. Integrating Survey and Ethnographic Methods for Systematic Anomalous Case Analysis
Lisa Pearce
2006
Sociological Methodology
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6. What Works and Why: Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Large-Scale Evaluations
Ian Plewis | Paul Mason
2005
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
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7. Fieldwork, Economic Theory, and Research on Institutions in Developing Countries
Christopher Udry
2003
The American Economic Review
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8. The Benefits of Being There: Evidence from the Literature on Work
Daniel Tope | Lindsey Chamberlain | Martha Crowley | Randy Hodson
2005
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
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9. Mapping the Process: An Exemplar of Process and Challenge in Grounded Theory Analysis
Beth Harry | Keith Sturges | Janette Klingner
2005
Educational Researcher
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10. Identity in Focus: The Use of Focus Groups to Study the Construction of Collective Identity
Jennie Munday
2006
Sociology
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Nicholas Pedriana
2005
Sociological Methods & Research
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12. The Growth and Development of Experimental Research in Political Science
James Druckman | Donald Green | James Kuklinski | Arthur Lupia
2006
American Political Science Reviews
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13. The Logic of the Survey Experiment Reexamined
Brian Gaines | James Kuklinski | Paul Quirk
2007
Political Analysis
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Robert Moffitt
2004
American Behavioral Scientist
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15. Naturally Occurring Preferences and Exogenous Laboratory Experiments: A Case Study of Risk Aversion
Glenn Harrison | John List | Charles Towe
2007
Econometrica
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16. Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses
Thomas Brambor | William Clark | Matt Golder
2006
Political Analysis
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17. A Potential Outcomes View of Value-Added Assessment in Education
Donald Rubin | Elizabeth Stuart | Elaine Zanutto
2004
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
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18. What are Value-Added Models Estimating and what does this Imply for Statistical Practice?
Stephen Raudenbush
2004
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
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Volume 2: Methods to Sample, Recruit, and Assign Cases
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Yvonne Wells | Walter Petralia | David De Vaus | Hal Kendig
2003
Research on Aging
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Valerie Lee | Douglas Ready | David Johnson
2001
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
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21. In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies
Joseph Henrich | Robert Boyd | Samuel Bowles | Colin Camerer | Ernst Fehr | Herbert Gintis | Richard McElreath
2001
American Economic Review
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Michael Bloor
2005
Sociology
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23. A Different Kind of Snowball: Identifying Key Policymakers
Karen Farquharson
2005
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
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Cyprian Wejnert | Douglas Heckathorn
2008
Sociological Methods and Research
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25. Sample Size: More than Calculations
Robert Parker | Nancy Berman
2003
The American Statistician
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Ken Kelley | Joseph Rausch
2006
Psychological Methods
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27. Sufficient Sample Sizes for Multilevel Modeling
Cora Maas | Joop Hox
2005
Methodology
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28. Two-Step Hierarchical Estimation: Beyond Regression Analysis
Christopher Achen
2005
Political Analysis
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29. Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research
Evan Lieberman
2005
American Political Science Review
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30. When can History Be Our Guide? The Pitfalls of Counterfactual Inference
Gary King | Langche Zeng
2007
International Studies Quarterly
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31. The Possibility Principle: Choosing Negative Cases in Comparative Research
James Mahoney | Gary Goertz
2004
American Political Science Review
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32. Use of the Extreme Groups Approach: A Critical Reexamination and New Recommendations
Kristopher Preacher | Derek Rucker | Robert MacCallum | W. Nicewander
2005
Psychological Methods
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33. The Intervention Selection Bias: An Underrecognized Confound in Intervention Research
Robert Larzelere | Brett Kuhn | Byron Johnson
2004
Psychological Bulletin
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Nigel Fielding
2004
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
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Odette Parry | Natasha Mauthner
2004
Sociology
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36. Recording Technologies and the Interview in Sociology, 1920–2000
Raymond Lee
2004
Sociology
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37. Toward an Open-Source Methodology: What We can Learn from the Blogosphere
Mark Blumenthal
2005
Public Opinion Quarterly
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38. Does Mode Matter for Modeling Political Choice? Evidence from the 2005 British Election Study
David Sanders | Harold Clarke | Marianne Stewart | Paul Whiteley
2007
Political Analysis
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Pierre Landry | Mingming Shen
2005
Political Analysis
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Volume 3: Methods for Coding and Measuring Data
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40. Can there Be Reliability without “Reliability?”
Robert Mislevy
2004
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
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41. The Meaning and Consequences of “Reliability”
Pamela Moss
2004
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
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42. My Current Thoughts on Coefficient Alpha and Successor Procedures
Lee Cronbach
2004
Educational and Psychological Measurement
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Dimiter Dimitrov
2002
Educational and Psychological Measurement
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44. Reliability: A Rasch Perspective
Randall Schumacker | Everett Smith
2007
Educational and Psychological Measurement
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45. Instructional Program Coherence: What it is and why it should Guide School Improvement Policy
Fred Newmann | BetsAnn Smith | Elaine Allensworth | Anthony Bryk
2001
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
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46. Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Robert Adcock | David Collier
2001
American Political Science Review
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47. What Good are Statistics that Don't Generalize?
David Shaffer | Ronald Serlin
2004
Educational Researcher
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48. Enhancing the Validity and Cross-Cultural Comparability of Measurement in Survey Research
Gary King | Christopher Murray | Joshua Salomon | Ajay Tandon
2004
American Political Science Review
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49. Death by Survey: Estimating Adult Mortality without Selection Bias from Sibling Survival Data
Emmanuela Gakidou | Gary King
2006
Demography
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50. Ratings and Rankings: Reconsidering the Structure of Values and their Measurement
Seth Ovadia
2004
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
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Sven Wilson | Daniel Butler
2007
Political Analysis
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52. Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questions
Stanley Presser | Mick Couper | Judith Lessler | Elizabeth Martin | Jean Martin | Jennifer Rothgeb | Eleanor Singer
2004
Public Opinion Quarterly
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53. Research Synthesis: The Practice of Cognitive Interviewing
Paul Beatty | Gordon Willis
2007
Public Opinion Quarterly
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54. Pretesting Experimental Instructions
Lisa Rashotte | Murray Webster | Joseph Whitmeyer
2005
Sociological Methodology
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Robin Henson | J. Roberts
2006
Educational and Psychological Measurement
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56. Comparing Check-All and Forced-Choice Question Formats in Web Surveys
Jolene Smyth | Don Dillman | Leah Christian | Michael Stern
2006
Public Opinion Quarterly
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Leah Christian | Don Dillman | Jolene Smyth
2007
Public Opinion Quarterly
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58. An Assessment of Alternative Measures of Time Use
F. Juster | Hiromi Ono | Frank Stafford
2003
Sociological Methodology
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59. Event History Calendars and Question List Surveys: A Direct Comparison of Interviewing Methods
Robert Belli | William Shay | Frank Stafford
2001
Public Opinion Quarterly
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Volume 4: Methods for Analysing and Reporting Results
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60. The Contribution of Computer Software to Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Data and Analyses
Pat Bazeley
2006
Research in the Schools
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61. What do Economists Talk about?: A Linguistic Analysis of Published Writing in Economic Journals
Nils Goldschmidt | Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
2007
American Journal of Economics and Sociology
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62. Dimensional Reduction of Word-Frequency Data as a Substitute for Intersubjective Content Analysis
Adam Simon | Michael Xenos
2004
Political Analysis
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63. Extracting Policy Positions from Political Texts Using Words as Data
Michael Laver | Kenneth Benoit | John Garry
2003
American Political Science Review
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64. TQCA: A Technique for Adding Temporality to Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Neal Caren | Aaron Panofsky
2005
Sociological Methods and Research
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Carsten Schneider | Claudius Wagemann
2006
European Journal of Political Research
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66. Fuzzy Sets and Social Research
Charles Ragin | Paul Pennings
2005
Sociological Methods and Research
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67. Causal Complexity and Party Preference
Gunnar Grendstad
2007
European Journal of Political Research
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68. Running a Best-Subsets Logistic Regression: An Alternative to Stepwise Methods
Jason King
2003
Educational and Psychological Methods
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69. Introduction to the Special Issue on Model Selection
David Weakliem
2004
Sociological Methods and Research
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70. Consider Propensity Scores to Compare Treatments
Lawrence Rudner | Johnette Peyton
2006
Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation
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71. Remarks on the Analysis of Causal Relationships in Population Research
Robert Moffitt
2005
Demography
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72. Statistical Inference and Patterns of Inequality in the Global North
Timothy Moran
2006
Social Forces
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73. Generalization in Qualitative Research
Geoff Payne | Malcolm Williams
2005
Sociology
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74. The Difference between “Significant” and “not Significant” is not Itself Statistically Significant
Andrew Gelman | Hal Stern
2006
The American Statistician
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75. Replication with Attention to Numerical Accuracy
Micah Altman | Michael McDonald
2003
Political Analysis
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76. Diversity in Everyday Research Practice: The Case of Data Editing
Erin Leahey | Barbara Entwisle | Peter Einaudi
2003
Sociological Methods and Research
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77. Why We Need a Structured Abstract in Education Research
Frederick Mosteller | Bill Nave | Edward Miech
2004
Educational Researcher
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Anthony Kelly | Robert Yin
2007
Educational Researcher
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79. A History of Effect Size Indices
Carl Huberty
2007
Educational and Psychological Measurement
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