Part I: Introduction. 1. The Research Process. Part II: Preparing to Do Research. 2. Theory Building: Concepts and Hypotheses in Political Research. 3. Setting the Foundation: Techniques of Systematic Bibliographic Search.

4. Internet Research. 5. From Abstract to Concrete: Operationalization and Measurement. 6. Working from a Plan: Considerations in Research Design. 7. Who, What, Where, When: The Problem of Sampling.

Part III: Quantitative Methods. 8. Survey Research. 9. Scaling Techniques. 10. Content Analysis. 11.

Sources and Applications of Aggregate Data. 12. Comparative Research. 13. Social Network Analysis: Finding Structure in a Complex World. Part IV: Analyzing Quantitative Data. 14. Data Preparation and Data Processing.

15. Describing the Data: The Construction of Tables and Charts. 16. Statistics I: Summarizing Distributions on One Variable. 17. Statistics II: Examining Relationships Between Two Variables. 18. Statistics III: Examining Relationships Among Several Variables.

Part IV: Qualitative Methods. 19. Direct Observation. 20. Focus Group Methodologies. 21. Elite and Specialized Interviewing. Part V: Conclusion.

22. Writing (and Reading) the Research Report. 23. Overview.