Short Outline
This interactive workshop supports PhD students in developing clear, publishable journal articles and dissertation chapters in the social sciences. Across three blocked half-day sessions, we combine concise input on academic writing and publishing with structured peer discussion of participants’ manuscripts. Participants will receive input on effective paper structure, clear academic writing, and strategies for communicating their argument. Moreover, the workshop introduces key aspects of the publishing process: choosing an appropriate journal, understanding submission and review procedures, responding to reviewers’ comments, and engaging in peer review. The course is especially suitable for junior social science researchers applying quantitative research methods, though students from other methodological backgrounds are welcome.

Course sessions are structured in two parts:
(1) input sessions on writing and publishing,
(2) application sessions: skill application exercises, discussions on participants’ papers, and QAs in real time.

Prerequisites
Participants are required to bring their own work at any stage of the writing process, from extended abstracts to full drafts. During the application sessions, the instructor and studying peers will provide structured comments from reviewers’ perspective. And there will be opportunities for in-class discussions. Feedback is provided both during sessions and asynchronously, giving students the opportunity to reflect on and revise their work between sessions.
By the end of the course, students will have advanced their manuscripts and gained practical insights into the entire academic publishing process. The workshop is mainly aimed at doctoral students at the University of Bamberg and LIfBi. In case of any vacant places, it is open to anyone interested.

About the Trainer
Dr. Chen-Hao Hsu is a postdoctoral researcher in the Professorship of Demography and Health at the University of Bamberg, with extensive experience in teaching, academic publication, and grant writing. His work covers diverse topics including fertility and parenting, family dynamics, health and wellbeing, labour market outcomes, and welfare policies. His PhD dissertation “Employment Instability, Family Formation, and Motherhood Penalties: Comparative and Life Course Perspectives” received the Promotionspreis der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg (2024) and won the second place of ECSR Prize for best PhD thesis (2025). His works have been published in international journals such European Sociological Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, Advances in Life Course Research, European Journal of Population, among others.

Date & Time: 
Friday, 30 October 2026, 09.00 a.m. to 01.00 p.m. (s.t.) +
Friday, 06 November 2026, 09.00 a.m. to 01.00 p.m. (s.t.) +
Friday, 13 November 2026, 09.00 a.m. to 01.00 p.m. (s.t.)

Place: BAGSS, Feldkirchenstraße 21, 96050 Bamberg, Room FG1/00.06

Work Units: 12

Registration: To register, please send an email to courses.bagss(at)uni-bamberg.de by 29 September
2026. Registration is mandatory. The number of participants is limited to 12.

This Workshop is organised by BAGSS

Short Outline

This course introduces researchers to the nuts and bolts of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), an innovative set-theoretic technique that allows for comparisons of small, intermediate or large numbers of cases in order to identify necessary and/or sufficient conditions for an out-come. It is an attractive method for scholars who seek to model causally complex patterns and integrate in-depth case knowledge at all stages of the analysis. We will introduce you to per-forming QCA with the freely available R software using the user-friendly RStudio environment. We will primarily discuss QCA as a case-oriented approach to small- and intermediate N com-parisons. The intensive two-day course has a practical focus and combines theoretical blocks with many hands-on labs entailing exercises and quizzes. We will use real-life data to replicate a published study and discuss examples from the participants’ own research projects in class.
 

The course covers the following topics:

• QCA: Origin, variants, uses and approaches
• Set theory and causal complexity
• Defining, structuring, measuring and calibrating concepts as sets
• Analyses of necessity and sufficiency
• Truth tables, limited diversity and counterfactual reasoning
• Conservative, intermediate and parsimonious solution types

The course materials (Readings, slides, R scripts and datasets) will be made available to participants before the workshop. The textbook used in this course is: Oana, I. E., Schneider, C. Q. & Thomann, E. (2021). Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Using R: A Beginner’s Guide. Cambridge University Press.
 

Target Group

The workshop is mainly aimed at doctoral students at BAGSS. In case of any vacant places, it is open to anyone interested.

Preliminary Requirements

This introductory QCA workshop is open to all researchers who are looking for a method that allows them to compare cases while, on the one hand, modelling aspects of causal complexity and, on the other hand, integrating in-depth case knowledge. No prior knowledge of R is required,
although some familiarity with the software may be an advantage. Basic knowledge of comparative empirical research is beneficial. Each participant needs a laptop/ computer to work with—for the lab sessions. You need to have installed, prior to the start of the course, the newest versions of the following freely available software on your computer:

- R (freely available at cran.rstudio.com )
- RStudio (freely available at www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/ )
 

Install R before RStudio. Once installed, you don’t have to open R; it suffices to open RStudio.

Date & Time:

Thursday, 21 January 2027, 09.00 a.m to 04.00 pm (s.t.)
Friday, 22 January 2027, 09.00 a.m. to 03.00 p.m. (s.t.)
 

Place:
BAGSS, Feldkirchenstraße 21, Bamberg, FG1/00.06
 

Work units: 16

Registration:
To register, please send an email to courses.bagss(at)uni-bamberg.de by December 01, 2026. Registration is mandatory. The number of participants is limited to 16.

About the Trainer
Dr Jieqiong Wu, University of Southampton

Jieqiong Wu is a Research Fellow in the School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences at the University of Southampton. She holds a PhD in Public Administration from the University of Konstanz, where she worked in the Working Group for Public Administration under the supervision
of Prof. Eva Thomann. Previously, Jieqiong studied and worked at several European universities and research institutions, including the University of Warwick, the University of Konstanz, Utrecht University, and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Her research interests lie at the intersection of public policy, public administration, and governance. In particular, she is interested in policy success, digital governance and e-voting, public participation, and the design and implementation of public policies. Methodologically, her research focuses on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), systematic literature reviews, comparative case analysis, and systematic content analysis.