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Research Methodology

Code: 42455 ECTS Credits: 10
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Public Administration OT 0

Contact

Name:
Danislava Milkova Marinova
Email:
dani.marinova@uab.cat

Teachers

Eva Kristine Ostergaard-Nielsen
Gabriela de Carvalho Meira Araujo

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

Students must have basic research methods skills (undergraduate social sciences level).


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this course is for the students to be familiar with and know how to apply a series of the main social science research techniques of collecting and analyzing data. In order to meet these objectives, we include both quantitative and qualitative techniques. We prioritize issues of practical training and interpretation over mathematical questions. We want students:

  • To be able to design academic and applied research projects in an independent manner and using the relevant terminology, argumentation and analytical framework.
  • To be able to evaluate applied or academic research with relevant criteria.
  • To be able to learn by him/herself in an autonomous way. 

Competences

  • Apply appropriate methodological techniques for rigorous analysis of public intervention in society and the economy.
  • Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously
  • Design a well-defined research project in accordance with the criteria of conceptual and methodological rigour in the framework of the social sciences.
  • Design technical projects and reports using the appropriate research methodology.
  • Evaluate projects, reports and analyses produced by others, with appropriate methodological and argumentative criteria.
  • Manage a varied and complex body of data and sources.
  • Work in international and multidisciplinary teams, with members from varying social, political, cultural and administrative backgrounds.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
  2. Design technical projects and reports using the appropriate research methodology.
  3. Evaluate projects, reports and analyses produced by others, with appropriate methodological and argumentative criteria.
  4. Identify advantages and difficulties related to the validity and reliability of the chosen techniques.
  5. Identify the most appropriate qualitative techniques to respond to a research question with the available data and analyse these.
  6. Identify the most appropriate quantitative techniques to respond to a research question with the available data and analyse these.
  7. Identify the sources of data available to address the research problem that has been formulated
  8. Know the current debates and challenges regarding the principal quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
  9. Know the principal quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
  10. Make the phenomena/factors that are of significance for the study observable.
  11. Relate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques to a research question and justify this relation.
  12. Work in international and multidisciplinary teams, with members from varying social, political, cultural and administrative backgrounds.

Content

QUALITATIVE METHODS (Convenor:Lara Ivana Maestripieri )

Introduction:

Session 1. Introduction to qualitative research techniques  
What are the main characteristics of qualitative research? How to assess validity and reliability in qualitative research? What kind of research questions can we ask using qualitative research techniques? Which types of qualitative techniques can best be combined and how may they be triangulated?

Data collection:

Session 2. Field research  
This class will examine methodological and practical issues of ethnographic research. It will cover: typologies of field research, the fieldwork entry, the (participant) observation, the collection of information, and the analyses of qualitative evidence.

Session 3. Interviews I  
What are the characteristics and differences between structured, semi-structured and open-ended/narrative interviews? How may the researcher sample the interviewees in a qualitative research project?

Session 4. Interviews II -  

Session 5. Interviews III - Focus Group  
In this class, there will be an introduction to focus group, taking into account conceptual considerations, best practices and how to design it.

Session 6. Further issues in Qualitative Research  
We will cover ethical issues, sensitive topics, and transparency in qualitative research (active citation and archiving).

Data analysis:

Session 7. Discourse analysis 
This session will clarify what discourses are, how they function and how we can analyse them. In addition, we will deal with the types of discourse analysis and we will reflect upon the kinds of data we can examine discursively.

Sessions 8, 9, and 10. Analysis of Interviews: Introduction to CAQDAS and ATLAS.ti  

MÈTODES QUANTITATIUS (Coordinadora: Danislava Marinova)

Sessió 1: Introducció a l'anàliside dades

Sessió 2: Estadística descriptiva

Sessió 3, 4: Anàlisi bivariada bàsica

Sessió 5, 6: Introducció a la inferència estadística

Sessió 7, 8: prova d'hipòtesis bivariada

Sessió 9: Tècniques de conjunt de dades: importar, netejar, combinar, afegir conjunts de dades

Sessió 10: Correlació i regressió bivariada

Sessió 11: Regressió amb variables categòriques

Sessió 12, 13: Regressió múltiple i interaccions

Sessió 14, 15: Regressió logística i postestimació


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master classes 50 2 3, 8, 9, 2, 10, 4, 7, 5, 6, 1, 11, 12
Type: Supervised      
Seminars and tutorial sessions 75 3 3, 8, 9, 2, 10, 4, 7, 5, 6, 1, 11, 12
Type: Autonomous      
Assignment and exercises 100 4 3, 8, 9, 2, 10, 4, 7, 5, 6, 1, 11, 12

 

 

QUANTITATIVE METHODS (Coordinator: Danislava Marinova)

All sessions include the following two types of activities:

(1) Lectures, including examples from applied research

(2) Applied exercises using the STATA software

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exercises qualitative part 40 10 0.4 3, 8, 9, 2, 10, 4, 5, 1, 12
Five take-home assignments in applied statistics 60 15 0.6 3, 8, 9, 2, 10, 4, 7, 5, 6, 1, 11, 12

Students must receive a passing grade in BOTH the quantitative and the qualitative parts of the module in order to receive a passing grade for the module.  In order to be evaluated for the module, students must attend at least 80% of class sessions. A 10% grade penalty will be applied for each day that a student is late with a graded submission.

 

QUALITATIVE METHODS (40% of final grade in the module)

Students will be evaluated based on four assignments in qualitative research methods. The weight of each assignment is as follows:

  • Exercise 1 (30% of the qualitative part), Fieldwork/observational techniques
  • Exercise 2 (30% of the qualitative part), Interview exercise
  • Exercise 3 (30% of the qualitative part), Data analysis (using Atlas.ti as software to support the analysis is optional)
  • Exercise 4 (10% of the qualitative part), Group presentation on the research process

In order to receive a passing grade, students must meet all four of the following requirements:

  1. attend at least 80% of class sessions;
  2. turn in/present all four assignment;
  3. receive a passing grade (of 5 or above) on at least three of the four assignments;
  4. have an average grade of above 5 in the four assignments.

Plagiarism: copying on an assignment will result in a zero for that assignment, and the student will have to take the recovery exam.

Remedial exam: students who have an average grade below 5 can opt to take the recovery exam if they meet the following two requirements:

  1. have attended 80% of class sessions AND
  2. have turned in/presented all four assignments.

The recovery exam is graded on a pass or fail basis. If students pass the recovery exam, they can receive, at best, a final grade of 5 for the qualitative module.

 

QUANTITATIVE PART (60% of final grade in the module)

Students will be evaluated based on five take-home assignments in applied statistics. Each assignment will be weighed equally toward the final grade.

In order to receive a passing grade, students must meet all four of the following requirements:

  1. attend at least 80% of class sessions;
  2. turn in all five assignment;
  3. receive a passing grade (of 5 or above) on at least three of the five assignments;
  4. have an average grade of above 5 on the five assignments.

Plagiarism: copying on an assignment will result in a zero for that assignment, and the student will have to take the remedial exam.

Remedial exam: students who have an average grade below 5 on the five take-home assignments or have copied on any one of the five assignemtns can take the remedial exam if they meet the following two requirements:

  1. have attended 80% of class sessions AND
  2. have turned in all five assignments.

The remedial exam is graded on a pass or fail basis. If students pass the exam, they can receive, at best, a final grade of 5 for the quantitative part of the module.


Bibliography

Core readings

Qualitative

Bryman, A. 2012. Social Research Methods. Oxford, Oxford University Press

Della Porta, D. & M. Keating, M. 2008. Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences: A Pluralist Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kapiszewski, Diana, MacLean, Lauren M., Read, Benjamin L. 2015. Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Hesse-Biber, S. And Leavy, P. 2010. The practice of qualitative research. Sage.

Quantitative

Kellstedt, P. M. & G. D. Whitten. 2013. The Fundamentals of Political Science Research, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pollock, P. H. 2016. The Essentials of Political Analysis, 5th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Pollock, P. H. 2015. A Stata Companion to Political Analysis, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.


Software

Qualitative Techniques

  • NVivo
  • Atlas-ti

Quantitative Techniques

  • STATA (16)

Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 1 English second semester morning-mixed