Where do you think a researcher should start studying the basics of methodology? Is it worth reading Durkheim and J.S. Mill for grasping the basics or should one skip that go with scholars like S.V. Evera, A.L. George, J.S. Levy etc. What should be the prime goals in a methodology inquiry? How one can achieve the practicality of methodological knowledge? How heavy one should lay importance to apps such as SPSS and R.
Hello, Furkan. I'm currently finishing my master's in Political Science, and about to start my PhD. That said, I find of the utmost importance that we, Political Science students, start our methodological journey by understanding the role of Political Science as a discipline — otherwise, how are we supposed to make the right research questions?
For that, I recommend the following:
- Lowi, T. J. (1992). The State in Political Science: How We Became What We Study. American Political Science Review, 86(1), 1–7.
- Putnam, R.D. (2003). APSA Presidential Address: The Public Role of Political Science. Perspectives on Politics, 1(2), pp.249–255.
- Noel, H. (2010). Ten Things Political Scientists Know that You Don’t. The Forum, 8(3)
After this, and considering you already have some basic understanding of research terminology, you should tackle:
- BRADY, Henry E.; COLLIER, David. (2010). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Part I (p. 11-161).
- BARAKSO, M.; SABET, D. SCHAFFNER, B. (2013). Understanding Political Science Research Methods - The Challenge of Inference. Section I (p. 9-80)
- MAHONEY, James; GOERTZ, Gary. (2006). A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Political Analysis.
With those readings, I believe you are ready to trace your own path.
And yes, you should definitely start learning R. You can safely ignore SPSS and Stata.
Good luck!
The scope of methodology research is quite broad, it really depends on your field what the appropriate sources to start with are...
Let me reduce the scope into the Political Science and IR disciplines
Furkan Halit Yolcu, Given the nature of your question, I assume you are at the start of your studies - particularly because you are referring to such widely different "targets" as Durkheim and SPSS.
I suspect, therefore, that books such as the following might be most useful for you because they would offer an informed and good bird's eye view of methodology:
Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th Edition, by John W. Creswell
The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process, by Michael J Crotty
The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 3rd Edition, by William M. K. Trochim & James P. Donnelly
Hello, Furkan. I'm currently finishing my master's in Political Science, and about to start my PhD. That said, I find of the utmost importance that we, Political Science students, start our methodological journey by understanding the role of Political Science as a discipline — otherwise, how are we supposed to make the right research questions?
For that, I recommend the following:
- Lowi, T. J. (1992). The State in Political Science: How We Became What We Study. American Political Science Review, 86(1), 1–7.
- Putnam, R.D. (2003). APSA Presidential Address: The Public Role of Political Science. Perspectives on Politics, 1(2), pp.249–255.
- Noel, H. (2010). Ten Things Political Scientists Know that You Don’t. The Forum, 8(3)
After this, and considering you already have some basic understanding of research terminology, you should tackle:
- BRADY, Henry E.; COLLIER, David. (2010). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Part I (p. 11-161).
- BARAKSO, M.; SABET, D. SCHAFFNER, B. (2013). Understanding Political Science Research Methods - The Challenge of Inference. Section I (p. 9-80)
- MAHONEY, James; GOERTZ, Gary. (2006). A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Political Analysis.
With those readings, I believe you are ready to trace your own path.
And yes, you should definitely start learning R. You can safely ignore SPSS and Stata.
Good luck!
Breno Marisguia. I think you've provided some really good suggestions for reading material, but I am concerned that you recommend R and that SPSS can safely be ignored. Could you explain why, please? I ask because I've heard some people say that they really hate R, but most researchers who use SPSS seem to find it helpful and pretty "smooth".
Robert Trevethan, being a free, open source programming language, R has a huge and quite helpful scientific community, who's constantly working on new packages and cutting edge quantitative and qualitative research solutions. It offers extensive, vast documentation through books, journals and manuals. Also, programming is a very handy skill to have nowadays, in the academia as well as in the market. Once you are skilled enough, there's nothing you can't do, really.
The setback of R is, as you may know, its learning curve. SPSS has a nice and friendly point-and-click interface, but this practicality is only excusable if someone doesn't have the time or patience required to learn a new "language". Seeing that Furkan Halit Yolcu is a young researcher, he would benefit wonders by learning R... but I don't see exactly what benefits SPSS would bring to his future — quite the opposite.
Breno Marisguia. Thanks for getting back. I can see your arguments, but I'm not nearly as dismissive of SPSS as you seem to be.
I think that people probably need to decide, given the variety of skills that need to be brought to research activity, where and how they should best exert their energy, for both short and long terms.
That aside, all the best as you launch into your doctoral studies - and I also wish Furkan all the best with his studies.
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