The “Political Science Methodology” course is addressed to the incoming students and aims at their familiarization with research methods that will be useful in their study period, most notably during the writing-up of their course essays and the completion of their MA dissertation. The course attempts to present in a comprehensive manner the basic methods of quantitative research. It, also, includes a seminar focusing on the subject of academic writing and its prerequisites. More specifically the course coves the following methods:

Web surveys: advantages and disadvantages of using the internet for conducting political research, the usage of open software for doing political internet research
Delphi.
Simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, nonlinear regression, etc.
Analysis with more than two variables (mokken scale analysis, cluster analysis, multiple correspondence analysis, etc.).

Students who successfully complete this course acquire knowledge, abilities and skills associated with levels 7 and 8 and they learn to use advanced methodological tools which have numerous applications in their chosen field of study. The course aims to familiarize students with data collection tools, data analysis methods, selection criteria of the most suitable method and the sources of available data to analyze political phainomena.

In particular, by completing successfully this course, students will have acquired the following skills and capabilities:

To be in a position to design a research project.
To be capable of searching, evaluating and documenting sources.
To be capable to organize and conduct a web survey
To be capable to select the most suitable data analysis method and apply it
To be able to comprehend the key elements of an empirical research and to evaluate the findings that result from data analysis and/or theoretical reasoning.

The students know what they should include in their essay. They are monitored during its preparation and constantly receive comments on how to improve it. For the weekly evaluation the criteria are communicated to students in advance.

Additional bibliography for study
Achen, C. H., & Shively, W. P. (1995). Cross-level inference. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.
Aldous, J. M. και R. J. Wilson (2000) Graphs and Applications: An Introductory Approach, Springer Verlag.
Anderson, J., Andreadis, I., Dumont, P., De Angelis, A., Fivas, J., Fossen, T., … & Ladner, A. (2014). Matching Voters with Parties and Candidates: Voting Advice Applications in Comparative Perspective. ECPR Press.
Anderson, T. W. & Finn, J. D., (1996). The New Statistical Analysis of Data, Νέα Υόρκη, Springer.
Berk, K. N. & Carey, P. (2000) Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel, Pacific Grove, Duxbury Presσ.
Biggs, N. L. (1990) Discrete Mathematics, Oxford Science Publications,.
Couper M. (2008) Designing effective web surveys Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK
D. J. Bartholomew, F. Steele, I. Moustaki, J. I. Galbraith (2007) Ανάλυση πολυµεταβλητών δεδομένων για κοινωνικές επιστήμες, Επίκεντρο.
Grinstead, C. M. και J. L. Snell, (1997) Introduction to Probability, American Mathematical Society.
Javeau, C. (1996) Η έρευνα µε ερωτηματολόγιο, Tυπωθήτω.
King, G. (1997). A solution to the ecological inference problem: Reconstructing individual behavior from aggregate data. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
King, G., Tanner, M. A., & Rosen, O. (2004). Ecological inference: New methodological strategies. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Norusis, (2005) Οδηγός ανάλυσης δεδομένων µε το SPSS, Κλειδάριθµος.
Paulos, J.Α. (1996) A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, Turtleback Books-Demco Media.
Sue, V. M., & Ritter, L. A. (2012). Conducting online surveys. Sage. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA
Αγγελής, E. και Γ. Mπλέρης (2003) Διακριτά μαθηματικά, Tζιόλα,.
Καλαµατιανού, A. (2003) Κοινωνική στατιστική, Aθήνα, Παπαζήσης, 2003.
Μπαγιάτης, Κ., Μωϋσιάδης, Χ., Τσάντας, Ν., Χατζηπαντελής, Θ. (2005) H ανάλυση δεδομένων µε τη χρήση στατιστικών πακέτων, Ζήτη.
Παπαδηµητρίου, Γ. (2007) Η ανάλυση δεδομένων, Tυπωθήτω.
Χατζηπαντελής, Θ, & Ι. Ανδρεάδης (2005) Μαθηματικά στις Πολιτικές Επιστήμες, Εκδόσεις Ζήτη.