Empirical Research at Social and Political Science Departments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from 2008 to 2011

Abstract

The present study provides an overview of the methods and the type of financing used in empirical research projects at social and political science departments in the years 2008 to 2011. Based on a survey of 41 chairs it can be shown that survey research - and especially representative surveys – provides the largest share of the research projects. Their funding - this in contrast to non-survey-based methods - primarily uses third-party funding and their implementation is done for the most part by external market research institutions. How the importance of such external institutions in the university research environment develops in the future remains to be seen, but the methodological development in empirical social research is greatly seen in the field of online research.