本书旨在向从事社会研究的读者呈现需要特别关注的研究设计议题。在进行社会研究时，一个重要的问题是研究设计与研究的实际过程相互不匹配，而一些研究方法教材又比较关注数据收集策略和统计分析。研究方法的核心内容应该是研究设计，故本书描述了社会研究中研究设计的主要类型，解释了研究设计的原理和目的，并提供了各项设计技术。 ------- 目录 前言 第一部分 什么是研究设计 第1章 研究设计的内容 第2章 研究设计的工具 第3章 因果关系与研究设计原理 第二部分 实验设计 第4章 实验设计的类型 第5章 实验设计议题 第6章 分析实验数据 第三部分 纵向设计 第四部分 截面设计 第五部分 个案研究设计 参考文献 索引 译后记

Authoring a Ph.D. Thesis involves having creative ideas, working out how to organize them, writing up from plans, upgrading text, and finishing it speedily and to a good standard. It also involves being examined and getting work published. This book provides a huge range of ideas and suggestions to help Ph.D. candidates cope with both the intellectual issues involved and the practical difficulties of organizing their work effectively.

An accessible introduction to the science and application of sample surveys Over the past two decades, survey research has evolved significantly. Survey Methodology describes the basic principles of survey design discovered in methodological research over recent years and offers guidance for making successful decisions in the design and execution of high quality surveys. Written by six nationally recognized experts in the field, this book covers the major considerations in designing and conducting a sample survey. Topical, accessible, and succinct, this book represents the state of the science in survey methodology. Employing the "total survey error" paradigm as an organizing framework, it merges the science of surveys with state-of-the-art practices. End-of-chapter terms, references, and exercises enhance its value as a reference for practitioners and as a text for advanced students.

这是一本由学术界公认的大师和睿智的教师介绍现代社会科学研究方法的一流教材。Treiman使复杂的问题变得简单，并提供了许多实用的建议和最优的方法。本书没有复杂的数学推导，通过大量的实例领会社会科学研究的基本逻辑和设计思想，图文并茂，浅显易懂，把握前沿最新社会科学成果。《量化数据分析：通过社会研究检验想法》不只是讲授统计学——它讲授如何用统计学回答社会问题,它教会学生如何运用统计学开展一流的量化研究。

When it was first published, DESIGNING SOCIAL INQUIRY, by political scientists Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba, at once struck chords of controversy. As it became one of the best-selling methodology books in memory, it continued to spark debate in journal articles, conference panels, and books. RETHINKING SOCIAL INQUIRY is a major new effort by a broad range of leading scholars to offer a cohesive set of reflections on DESIGNING SOCIAL INQUIRY's quest for common standards drawn from quantitative methodology. While vigorously agreeing to the need for common standards, the essays in RETHINKING SOCIAL INQUIRY argue forcefully that these standards must be drawn from exemplary qualitative research as well as the best quantitative studies. The essays make the case that good social science requires a set of diverse tools for inquiry. Key additions to the seminal pieces gathered here include an original overview of DESIGNING SOCIAL INQUIRY, a new essay on evaluating causation, and a concluding chapter that draws together basic issues in the ongoing methodological debate.

Case Study Research: Principles and Practices aims to provide a general understanding of the case study method as well as specific tools for its successful implementation. These tools can be utilized in all fields where the case study method is prominent, including business, anthropology, communications, economics, education, medicine, political science, social work, and sociology. Topics include the definition of a 'case study,' the strengths and weaknesses of this distinctive method, strategies for choosing cases, an experimental template for understanding research design, and the role of singular observations in case study research. It is argued that a diversity of approaches - experimental, observational, qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic - may be successfully integrated into case study research. This book breaks down traditional boundaries between qualitative and quantitative, experimental and nonexperimental, positivist and interpretivist.

Making Social Science Matter presents an exciting new approach to the social and behavioral sciences including theoretical argument, methodological guidelines, and examples of practical application. Why has social science failed in attempts to emulate natural science and produce normal theory? Bent Flyvbjerg argues that the strength of social sciences lies in its rich, reflexive analysis of values and power, essential to the social and economic development of any society. Richly informed, powerfully argued, and clearly written, this book opens up a new future for the social sciences. Its empowering message will make it required reading for students and academics across the social and behavioral sciences.

Did mandatory busing programs in the 1970s increase the school achievement of disadvantaged minority youth? Does obtaining a college degree increase an individual's labor market earnings? Did the use of the butterfly ballot in some Florida counties in the 2000 presidential election cost Al Gore votes? If so, was the number of miscast votes sufficiently large to have altered the election outcome? At their core, these types of questions are simple cause-and-effect questions. Simple cause-and-effect questions are the motivation for much empirical work in the social sciences. This book presents a model and set of methods for causal effect estimation that social scientists can use to address causal questions such as these. The essential features of the counterfactual model of causality for observational data analysis are presented with examples from sociology, political science, and economics.

Causal inference is a fundamental goal of social research, and it has been a topic of methodological research for decades. The evaluation of social science theory cannot proceed without assessing the sizes of entailed cause-effect relationships. Policy research cannot be conducted without estimating the impacts that follow from policy interventions. Unfortunately, for most social science research, controlled experimentation is not possible. And, when experimentation is feasible, it is often only possible in artificial contexts and for subjects who are not the representative of the target populations for inference. Tremendous progress has been made in the past 15 years in the causal analysis of non-experimental data, also known as observational data. The proposed handbook aims to explain this progress and then demonstrate how to use state-of-the-art methods for causal analysis in basic and applied empirical scholarship. The methods involve defining causal contrasts using counterfactual definitions and then estimating differences across individuals while maintaining clear assumptions about these contrasts. This approach allows for advanced forms of regression and multivariate case-matching, as well longitudinal differencing techniques, and instrumental variable estimation based on the occurrence of natural experiments. In the tradition that will be explicated in this handbook, substantial attention will also be devoted to representing underlying assumptions using causal graphs.

While the authors identify areas of concern regarding scientists’ low earnings, competition from Asia, and the declining number of academic positions, they conclude that science in the United States is not in decline. American culture is highly conducive to science, and educated workers with a range of skills will still be in demand in the future.

Professor Ragin proposes a synthetic new strategy, based on an application of Boolean algebra, that will combine the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative sociology. Elegantly accessible and germane to the work of all the social sciences, this book will garner interest, debate, and praise from many quarters.

The concept of the case is a basic feature of social science research and yet many questions about how a case should be defined, selected, and judged are far from settled. The contributors to this volume probe the nature of the case and the ways in which different understandings of the concept affect the conduct and the results of research. The contributions demonstrate that the work of any given researcher is often characterised by some hybrid of these basic approaches, and it is important to understand that most research involves multiple definitions and uses of cases, as both specific empirical phenomena and as general theoretical categories.

Some in the social sciences argue that the same logic applies to both qualitative and quantitative methods. In "A Tale of Two Cultures", Gary Goertz and James Mahoney demonstrate that these two paradigms constitute different cultures, each internally coherent yet marked by contrasting norms, practices, and toolkits. They identify and discuss major differences between these two traditions that touch nearly every aspect of social science research, including design, goals, causal effects and models, concepts and measurement, data analysis, and case selection. Although focused on the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, Goertz and Mahoney also seek to promote toleration, exchange, and learning by enabling scholars to think beyond their own culture and see an alternative scientific worldview. This book is written in an easily accessible style and features a host of real-world examples to illustrate methodological points.

Weber's methodological writings form the bedrock of key ideas across the social sciences. His discussion of value freedom and value commitment, causality, understanding and explanation, theory building and ideal types have been of fundamental importance, and their impact remains undiminished today. These ideas influence the current research practice of sociologists, historians, economists and political scientists and are central to debates in the philosophy of social science. But, until now, Weber's extensive writings on methodology have lacked a comprehensive publication. Edited by two of the world's leading Weber scholars, Collected Methodological Writings will provide a completely new, accurate and reliable translation of Weber's extensive output, including previously untranslated letters. Accompanying editorial commentary explains the context of, and interconnections between, all these writings, and additional useful features include a glossary of German terms and an English key, endnotes, bibliography, and person and subject indexes.

Drawing on more than four decades of experience as a researcher and teacher, Howard Becker now brings to students and researchers the many valuable techniques he has learned. Tricks of the Trade will help students learn how to think about research projects. Assisted by Becker's sage advice, students can make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh ideas on where to look next for new data. The tricks cover four broad areas of social science: the creation of the "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in the data; the development of "concepts" to organize findings; and the use of "logical" methods to explore systematically the implications of what is found. Becker's advice ranges from simple tricks such as changing an interview question from "Why?" to "How?" (as a way of getting people to talk without asking for a justification) to more technical tricks such as how to manipulate truth tables. Becker has extracted these tricks from a variety of fields such as art history, anthropology, sociology, literature, and philosophy; and his dazzling variety of references ranges from James Agee to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Becker finds the common principles that lie behind good social science work, principles that apply to both quantitative and qualitative research. He offers practical advice, ideas students can apply to their data with the confidence that they will return with something they hadn't thought of before. Like Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade will bring aid and comfort to generations of students. Written in the informal, accessible style for which Becker is known, this book will be an essential resource for students in a wide variety of fields. "An instant classic. . . . Becker's stories and reflections make a great book, one that will find its way into the hands of a great many social scientists, and as with everything he writes, it is lively and accessible, a joy to read."—Charles Ragin, Northwestern University

http://www.sociologypress.com/books/classic_series/the_discovery_of_grounded_theory.htm The seminal work on classic grounded theory methodology, co-authored by Barney G. Glaser and Anselm Strauss. CONTENT I The Discovery of Grounded Theory Part I Generating Theory by Comparative Analysis II Generating Theory III Theoretical Sampling IV From Substantive to Formal Theory V The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis VI Clarifying and Assessing Comparative Studies Part II The Flexible Use of Data VII New Sources of Qualitative Data VIII Theoretical Elaboration of Quantitative Data Part III Implications of Grounded Theory IX The Credibility of Grounded Theory X Applying Grounded Theory XI Insight and Theory Development Epilogue Index