Introduction -- Studying politics scientifically -- Research design -- The building blocks of social scientific research : hypotheses, concepts, and variables -- Conducting a literature review -- The building blocks of social scientific research : measurement -- Making empirical observations : direct and indirect observation -- Document analysis : using the written record -- Sampling -- Elite interviewing and survey research -- Univariate data analysis and descriptive statistics -- Measuring relationships and testing hypotheses : bivariate data analysis -- Searching for complete explanations and causal knowledge : multivariate analysis -- The research report : an annotated example.