Dear colleagues,

we would like to draw attention to the CfP for our session "Experimental Designs in the Social Sciences: Types, Modes and Equivalence" at the conference "Modes, Measurement, Modelling: Achieving Equivalence in Quantitative Research" in Mannheim, Germany (24.-25. October 2014) organized by Tobias Gummer and Henning Best on behalf of the ESC working group on "Quantitative Methods in Criminology" (EQMC) and the ESA Research Network on "Quantitative Methods" (ESA RN21).

--------------------------------------------------------- CfP Session "Experimental Designs in the Social Sciences: Types, Modes and Equivalence"

Experimental designs for the study of causal mechanisms have been increasingly applied in the social sciences in recent years. The range of applications includes natural experiments, field experiments and laboratory experiments as well as techniques that combine experimental strategies with survey research methods. Typical applications are to be found in research on norms and deviant behavior, on problems of trustworthiness, environmental behavior, and in research on methodologies itself.

In this session, we encourage an intensive exchange and a critical review of the applicability of experimental techniques in the social sciences. We want to bring together expertise on conducting experimental strategies in field, laboratory and survey contexts, considering methodological challenges in particular. What did we learn? Which problems became apparent? How can they possibly be resolved?

We specifically invite contributions on one or several of the following aspects:

* Applications in the laboratory, in the field, in the survey and of natural experiments * Comparisons of experimental data from different types and sources: field, laboratory, survey * Especially survey experiments (Split-Ballot, Factorial Survey): analysis of effects of context, of question order, presentation mode (visual, verbal, open, closed); effects of response format, effects of survey mode (face-to-face, PAPI, CATI, CAWI) * Contributions of experimental methods in the analysis of sensitive topics (criminal or deviant behavior)

Chairs: Stefanie Eifler & Knut Petzold ---------------------------------------------------------

Please email your abstracts to knut.petzold@ku.de (session organizer) as well as cc to henning.best@gesis.org by 15 August 2014 at the latest. Proposals should contain a title and an abstract of up to 200 words.

Kind regards,

Stefanie Eifler & Knut Petzold