Summer School in Social Research Methods (3SRM)

If you want to bring your research to the next level, the 3SRM event is the place to be. It is a unique venue: besides world-class methods courses taught by top pedagogues, with small-group interaction and individual tutoring, there are a range of supplemental free morning and afternoon courses that you can take part in to expand your methodological skills.

On this page you will find all the information you need about 3SRM which takes place in the first two weeks (+ one pre-week online) of the four week programme of Radboud Summer School.

Your application to a course part of 3SRM gives you access to both a main course (20 hours), up to 8 hours of extra short courses per week, as well as the Methods Café. Besides that: registration to at least one 3SRM course = contains a 1-year (2024 calendar year) free membership as MethodsNET regular member. You can recognize the 3SRM courses by the red and purple banner and picture on the course page.

What is 3SRM?

A Methods Excellence Network (MethodsNET) Event, hosted by Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, the Netherlands

The Summer School in Social Research Methods (3SRM) programme is developed by the experts of the Methods Excellence Network (MethodsNet), in partnership with the Nijmegen School of Management at Radboud University, Netherlands. The Radboud Summer School provides the practical support for running the event. Held at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the school offers a wide range of methods courses across the whole span of methodological traditions, while also covering innovative/emerging topics.

World-class methods courses -- and so much more

The 2024 offer is 36 main week-long in-person courses, along with seven pre-event online courses. The programme has been designed so that you can take different sequences of courses that supplement each other. The school is held at the beautiful facilities of the Nijmegen School of Management at Radboud University, Netherlands. Lunch is included in the course fee, as is coffee/tea during breaks.

Dates

Pre-week online courses (10-14 June 2024)
Week 1 of the 3SRM courses (17-21 June 2024)
Week 2 of the 3SRM courses (24-28 June 2024)

Your full package experience

About your main courses:

Tailored advice on choosing courses and a sequence across week 1 and week 2 – the programme has been designed to enable multiple useful sequences
Pluralism, via the full diversity of methods covered
Possibility of extra ECTS credits

Beyond your main courses

On a weekly basis, your main course fee in fact gives you access to a ‘full package’ which comprises:

Two morning cross-cutting short courses on the Philosophy of Science (week 1) and on Research Approaches and Designs in the Social Sciences (week 2). Both are optional but encouraged to broaden your methodological expertise!`
On both weeks: three late afternoon Supplemental short courses: Math Refresher (both weeks), Missing Data (week 1) and Data Visualization (week 2)
Lunches are included, in addition to the necessary amount of caffeine and theine over breaks.

Short Courses

About your 3SRM short courses: complement your methodological skills!

The short courses (4-hours in total) are optional and free of charge -- i.e. they are part of your weekly training package covered by the fee you have paid for a 1-week in-person main course. They can be useful in different ways: the morning cross-cutting short courses provide you with ‘a broader perspective’ and enable you to reflect beyond your more targeted main course(s), while the late afternoon supplemental short courses focus on specific skills that can be useful in connection with numerous 3SRM main courses – or simply enable you to complement your methodological skills. We have arranged that the afternoon courses finish at 17:00, so that you still have time after this to work on daily tasks related to your main course.

There is no need to register in advance to these short courses – you just come and attend if you wish to do so. You can (if asked) receive a certificate of attendance from MethodsNET if you attend all four successive daily sessions of a given course. These courses do not stand for ECTS Credits and are limited in spots (first come first serve).

Morning cross-cutting short courses (Tuesdays-Fridays 8:30-9:30)

[M1] Communicating across research traditions (week 1, June 17-21)
By Benoît Rihoux & Anka Kekez-Kostro
Most social scientists operate within a single overall research tradition, and all too many have little understanding of other approaches. This short course first introduces three different traditions for studying the social world: variance-based, case-based and interpretivist approaches. The course then explores how the different traditions talk about similar themes. In the course, we discuss how the different approaches talk about similar things. We will explore how and why the approaches diverge on core methodological topics such as what are concepts and theories and how do we use them, and how we can make valid/trustworthy claims about the empirical world. After you have taken the course, you will be better able to understand the claims and evidence of research from other traditions on their own terms.
[M2] Philosophy of Science (week 2, June 24-28)
By Rosa Runhardt & Cai Wilkson
Philosophy of science is one of those topics that every research methodology presumes, but is rarely explicit about. Debates in the philosophy of science can help to illuminate the commitments that research tacitly and implicitly make, and equip us to make more informed decisions about our own research designs and approaches. This course will survey the history of the philosophy of science in the European tradition, and offer a vocabulary for more informed discussions of tricky conceptual issues involved in the production of knowledge that is in some sense valid.

Late afternoon supplemental short courses (Mondays-Thursdays 16:00-17:00)

[L1] ChatGPT and AI Skills for Academics (Week 1)
by Levente Littvay
The quick spread of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, or Claude AI in 2023 took every profession by storm. Academics are no different; many looked at the trends with great suspicion or were lost in the labyrinth of pitfalls like AI hallucinations producing incorrect information. This said, generative AI tools are still helpful for academics. This mini-course aims to offer an overview of best practices, show off good use cases in academic research, and offer a starting point to make AI tools a helpful companion for academic research. The above-mentioned suspicious and lost scholars are especially welcome.
- Session 1: Introduction to Generative AI and ChatGPT
- Session 2: Introduction to Prompt Engineering
- Session 3: Other AI Tools for Academics
- Session 4: AI Research Use Cases
[L3] Math Refresher (Week 2)
by Rutger Schilpzand
This short course is designed to refresh mathematical background frequently used in quantitative social science research. The course will provide an overview of the essential concepts required for competent analysis using quantitative approaches in social science. The topics include dimensions of calculus, linear algebra and probability theory, which are most commonly applied in social science research. Therefore, instead of a comprehensive mathematical approach, the course will cover the most critical concepts and approaches, which are usually behind widely used tools. For each topic, the application of the given mathematical concept will also be mentioned, and literature will be suggested for the deeper understanding.

Some more information

Your typical day

Here is a typical day of a on compos course at the 3SRM. Discover how it provides you with a unique learning, brainstorming, socializing and networking experience:

You arrive early in the cozy patio and informally socialize – and fully wake up with whatever amount of caffeine/theine you may need
In the first part of the morning (8:30-9:30), you follow a cutting-edge cross-cutting short course to broaden your methods expertise and reflect beyond your more targeted main course
Back to the patio & further informal time (9:30-10:00), crossing participants from very diverse horizons
Join your fellow course participants, your expert instructor, and his/her teaching assistant(s) if applicable, for a 2-hour interactive main course session (10:00-12:00)
Enjoy the ample lunch break (12:00-13:30) to socialize further
Join again your fellow course participants for a 2-hour interactive main course session (13:30-15:30)
Back to the patio for a further break and more informal time (15:30-16:00)
Join one of the short Supplemental courses (16:00-17:00) to further sharpen or refresh your skills; some of these skills may be of direct use for the main course you are following on that week, or on the next week if applicable
Then you work on whatever necessary tasks related to your main course (e.g. assignments, prep work, self-study, group work, …), before you join the 3SRM community for a lively social event in the evening.

Bottom line: this unique training programme has been designed so that, beyond your main course sessions, you have plenty of breathing time and occasions to socialize and informally ‘discuss methods stuff’ and your research challenges with other participants from diverse horizons – and indeed also with methods experts (instructors and teaching assistants) from other courses. What’s also unique about the 3SRM is the ‘critical mass’ and diversity of methods expertise gathered there!

MethodsNET

MethodsNET is a global professional network of methods experts in the social sciences. It is dedicated to promoting accessible world-class methods training, methodological pluralism and innovation. We also aim to promote cross-disciplinary fertilization, career development and lifelong learning. We follow a not-for-profit logic in our operations and in the events we (co-) organize or endorse – and the 3SRM is our flagship event.

More information

Nijmegen School of Management

Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) carries out state-of-the-art research into how organizations and governments manage and govern complex problems in their strive for more sustainable societies. The unique combination of disciplines we house – Public Administration, Political Science, Business Administration, Economics, Environmental Governance, Spatial Planning and Human Geography – allows for a truly distinctive interdisciplinary approach to such grand challenges. Moreover, we offer cutting-edge methodological research and teaching, at the interface of intervention methods, action research and ‘deep’ empirical research methodology, based on involvement with stakeholders and embedding within the field.