About the courses

The ECPR Methods School offers a broad variety of courses that cater for the needs of researchers in political science and neighbouring disciplines. The Winter School offers five types of courses, each designed to complement the others thus providing a full and comprehensive package of tuition (a further 'intensive refresher' course is available at the Summer School only).

The Winter School programme starts with Short, 2-day Preparatory courses held on the 13 and 14 February, followed by a choice of four different types of Main courses, each lasting five days which run from the 16-20 February. You can choose either one Short course or one Main course, or a package of both one of each. It is not possible to take more than one Short course and one Main course though, as you will be given assignments, projects or readings in addition to class tuition.

A full list of courses is listed below. Click on the individual course code below to go directly to the full details for that course.

Short Preparatory courses (7.5 hours over 2 days) 13-14 February 2015

Friday 13 February: 13:00-15:00 and 15.30-17.00
Saturday 14 February: 09.30-11.30 and 12.30-14.30

There are 11 Short Preparatory courses offering a quick introduction or ‘refresher’ to tools that will be useful for further courses. Typically: software training, before taking a data analysis course.

You can take a Short course on its own or combine it with one Main course (a package). Course packages offer a discounted rate compared to booking individually. Click on the individual course code below to go directly to the full details for that course.

WA102. Programming in the social sciences: Web scraping, social media, and new (big) data with Python -  Holger Döring

WA103. Introduction to R - Florian Weiler and Thorsten Schnapp (due to popular demand this will be taught in two groups by either Florian or Thorsten) - ALMOST FULLY BOOKED

WA104. Introduction to STATA - Simon Fink

WA105. Introduction to SPSS - Florian Meinfelder

WA106. Introduction to z-Tree, a software package for designing and implementing laboratory experiments - Wolfgang Luhan

WA107. Introduction to Mplus - Rens Van de Schoot

WA108. Automated web data collection with R - Peter Meissner

WA109. Combining data from different sources: different techniques, different worlds - Susanne Rässler

WA110. Weighting techniques to handle survey nonresponse (advanced) - Hans Walter Steinhauer

WA111. Introduction to Qualitative Data Analysis with Atlas.ti - Johannes Starkbaum

WA112. Introduction to NVivo for Qualitative Data Analysis - Marie-Hélène Paré - ALMOST FULLY BOOKED

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Main courses (15 hours over 5 days) Monday 16 to Friday 20 February 2015

Generally classes are either 09:00-12:30 or 14:00-17:30

There are four types of Main course available at the Winter School, listed below. You can take a Main course on its own or combine it with one Short course (a package). Course packages offer a discounted rate compared to booking individually. Click on the individual course code below to go directly to the full details for that course.

Research design/fundamentals course: An ‘upstream’ course enabling you to think about your research more broadly, so you can make more informed choices about specific methods/techniques.

Data collection/generation course: A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data collection or generation.

Data analysis course (introductory): A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data analysis, bringing you to a level of well-informed use.

Data analysis course (advanced): A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data analysis, bringing you to an expert level, including more recent refinements.

Research design/fundamentals course (15 hours over 5 days)

An ‘upstream’ course enabling you to think about your research more broadly, so you can make more informed choices about specific methods/techniques.

WB101. Research Design Fundamentals - Samo Kropivnik

WB102. Comparative Research Designs - Benoît Rihoux - ALMOST FULLY BOOKED

WB103.  Introduction to Qualitative Interpretive Methods - Marie Østergaard Møller

WB104.  Experimental Methods - Wolfgang Luhan

WB105.  Introduction to Statistics for Political and Social Scientists - Florian Weiler - ALMOST FULLY BOOKED

WB106. Causal inference for political and social sciences - Susanne Rässler

WB107. Knowing and the Known: The Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences - Robert Adcock

WB108. Ethical Issues in Field Research Methods - Peregrine Schwartz-Shea - COURSE CANCELLED

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Data collection/generation course (15 hours over 5 days)

A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data collection or generation.

WC101. Interpretative interviewing - Lea Sgier

WC102. Field Research - Diana Kapiszewski

WC103. Focus Groups – From Qualitative Data Generation to Analysis - Virginie Van Ingelgom

WC104. Survey design - Mark Trappmann

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Data analysis course (introductory) (15 hours over 5 days)

A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data analysis, bringing you to a level of well-informed use.

WD101. Quantative text analysis - Heike Klüver - ALMOST FULLY BOOKED

WD102.  Introduction to Applied Social Network Analysis - Dimitris Christopoulos

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Data analysis course (advanced) (15 hours over 5 days)

A hands-on course focused on a specific method (or family of methods) for data analysis, bringing you to an expert level, including more recent refinements.

WD202. Writing ethnographic and other qualitative-interpretive research: Learning inductively - Dvora Yanow

WD203. Advanced Process Tracing Methods - Derek Beach

WD204.  Advanced Topics in Set-Theoretic Methods and QCA - Carsten Q Schneider

WD205.  Advanced Multi-Method Research - Ingo Rohlfing

WD206.  Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis - Marie-Hélène Paré

WD207.  Advanced Discrete Choice Modelling - Paul W Thurner

WD208.  Interpreting Binary Logistic Regression Models - Markus Wagner

WD209.  Inferential Network Analysis - Skyler Cranmer

WD210. Introduction to Bayesian Inference - Susumu Shikano

WD211.  Panel Data Analysis: hierarchical structures, heterogeneity and serial dependence - Christian Aßmann

WD212.  Multilevel Regression Modelling - Levi Littvay

WD213.  Correspondence Analysis - Philippe Blanchard

WD214.  Agent-Based Modelling in the Social Sciences - Nils B Weidmann

WD215. Age-period-cohort analysis - Anja Neundorf

WD218.  Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with R - Ulrich Schröders

WD219.  Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) [Using social networks to sample and analyse data from hard-to-reach and hidden populations] - Lisa Grazina Johnston

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