Empirical Political Analysis (9^th Ed.)
Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Empirical Political Analysis introduces readers to the foundations of social science research. Organized around the stages of the research process, this textbook prepares readers to conduct both quantitative and qualitative research, from the formation of theory through the design of research projects, to the collection of data and the analysis of results. It offers a clear and concise presentation of basic concepts and tools that can be applied in a wide range of research settings and highlights ethical conduct in the research process. It will help you both to achieve sound results in your own research and to critically evaluate research presented by others.

Key features:

• Offers comprehensive coverage of quantitative and qualitative research methods in political science ? this book is one of the key texts in the field of political research methods since it was first published over 25 years ago.
• Covers the research process from start to finish?hypothesis formation, literature review, research design, data gathering, data analysis, and research report writing.
• Includes in-depth examples of political science research to give discipline-specific instruction on political analysis.
• Features a "Practical Research Ethics" box in every chapter to make students aware of common ethical dilemmas and potential solutions to them.
• Includes learning goals, key terms, and research examples to help students engage and explore the most important concepts.

New to this edition:

• Updated and international case studies.
• New material on understanding research design ? what constitutes a sound research design and how this contributes to being able to justify research findings.

Part I: Introduction

Chapter 1. Research as a Process

Part II: Preparing to Do Research

Chapter 2. Building Theories and Hypotheses

Chapter 3. Developing Your Literature Review

Chapter 4. Designing Your Research and Choosing Your Methods

Chapter 5. From Abstract to Concrete: Operationalization and Measurement

Chapter 6. Research Design: Attributing Causation through Control

Chapter 7. Who, What, Where, When: The Problem of Sampling

Part III: Quantitative Methods

Chapter 8. Survey Research: Characterizing a Broader Population

Chapter 9. Creating Complex Indicators: Using Scaling Techniques

Chapter 10. Content Analysis: Researching Textual Material

Chapter 11. Aggregate Data: Studying Groups

Chapter 12. Comparative Methods: Research Across Populations

Part IV: Analyzing Quantitative Data

Chapter 13. Coding Data: Preparing Observations for Analysis

Chapter 14. Tables and Charts: Visually Describing the Data

Chapter 15. Statistics I: Summarizing Distributions on One Variable

Chapter 16. Statistics II: Examining Relationships between Two Variables

Chapter 17. Statistics III: Relationships among Several Variables

Part V: Qualitative Methods

Chapter 18. Direct Observation: Systematically Watching Behavior

Chapter 19. Focus Group Research

Chapter 20. Elite and Specialized Interviewing

Part VI: Conclusion

Chapter 21. The Research Report: Diagramming a Sample Article

Chapter 22. Summary: Overview of the Research Process

Appendix A Statistical Tables

Appendix B Ethical Standards in Empirical Research

Richard C. Rich, PhD, studies and teaches about environmental policy, public policy analysis, and research methods. He was Editor of the State University of New York Press Urban Public Policy book series that won the Aaron Wildavsky Award for Contributions to Policy Analysis. He was formerly Chair of the Department of Political Science, Director of the Center for Environmental and Energy Studies, and Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech.