Conceiving and Designing Political Science Research: Perspectives from Europe

In recent years a number of books have been published about research design, methods and approaches in political science which are not aimed for Bachelor’s students, but for advanced students and (junior) researchers. Many of these books operate on an abstract level and it might be difficult to translate their advice to the concrete research projects the beginning researchers embark on. The review essay discusses three books that are not written by methodologists but by scholars who spent most of the time by actually doing research. Moreover, the three books are the result of teaching doctoral students to do research, hence they carry the promise that the writing reflects this hands-on teaching experience. This review essay addresses two questions. First, do these books provide for a hands-on approach for conceiving and designing political science research and secondly, is a specific European approach distinguishable and if yes, how does this approach look like? Keywords: Political Science, Research Design, PhD Training, Epistemology, Scientific Pluralism