The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 52 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality
Abstract
This article maps the methodological debate on process tracing and discusses the diverse variants of process tracing in order to highlight the commonalities beyond diversity and disagreements. Today most authors agree that process tracing is aimed at unpacking causal and temporal mechanisms. The article distinguishes two main types of use for process tracing. Some are more inductive, aimed at theory building (i.e. at uncovering and specifying causal mechanisms) while others are more deductive, aimed at theory testing (and refining). The paper summarizes the main added value and drawbacks of process tracing. It ends by providing ten guidelines for when and how to apply process tracing.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
(2005) · Cited by 9,479
Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research
King, G., Keohane, R. O., & Verba, S. (1994) · Princeton University Press · doi:10.1515/9781400821211 · Cited by 7,225
Case study research: principles and practices
(2007) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.45-1530 · Cited by 4,167
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
Lijphart, A. (1971) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.2307/1955513 · Cited by 3,151
Greenstein, F. I., & Polsby, N. W. (1975) · Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc. eBooks · Cited by 2,305
Collier, D. (2011) · PS: Political Science & Politics · doi:10.1017/s1049096511001429 · Cited by 2,238
Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Collier, D., & Adcock, R. (2001) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 1,603
Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science
Van Evera, S. (2016) · Cornell University Press eBooks · doi:10.7591/9780801454455 · Cited by 1,374
Process-Tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines
Beach, D., & Pedersen, R. (2013) · doi:10.3998/mpub.2556282 · Cited by 1,140
Alternative Approaches for Studying Organizational Change
Van de Ven, A. H., & Poole, M. S. (2005) · Organization Studies · doi:10.1177/0170840605056907 · Cited by 1,000
Research works printed but not linked: 13
- 10.1017/S0003055401003100 · DOI
- Bates R.H., 1998, Analytic Narratives
- Bennett A., 2015, Process Tracing in the Social Sciences: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, 3
- Blatter J., 2007, Qualitative Politikanalyse. Eine Einführung in Forschungsansätze und Methoden
- Dunning T., 2015, Process Tracing in the Social Sciences: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, 211
- Falleti T.G., 2006, Newsletter of the Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association, 17
- George A.L., 1985, Advances in Information Processing in Organizations, 2, 21
- Little D., 1995, The Southern Journal of Philiosophy, 31
- 10.1023/A:1011912816997 · DOI
- 10.1080/09636412.2014.970846 · doi:10.1080/09636412.2014.970846
- Schimmelfennig F., 2006, Methoden der Politikwissenschaft, 263
- Schimmelfennig F., 2015, Process Tracing in the Social Sciences: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, 98
- Waldner D., 2015, Process Tracing in the Social Sciences: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, 126
Cited by
Process Tracing and Historical Explanation
Mahoney, J. (2015) · Security Studies · doi:10.1080/09636412.2015.1036610 · Cited by 296
An Introduction to Polycentricity and Governance
Stephan, M., Marshall, G., & McGinnis, M. (2019) · Governing Complexity · doi:10.1017/9781108325721.002 · Cited by 112
Thiel, A., & Moser, C. (2019) · Governing Complexity · doi:10.1017/9781108325721.004 · Cited by 58
Mitigating risk of failure in information technology projects: Causes and mechanisms
Schmidt, J. (2023) · Project Leadership and Society · doi:10.1016/j.plas.2023.100097 · Cited by 56
Mechanisms, Bayesianism, and process tracing
Mahoney, J. (2016) · New Political Economy · doi:10.1080/13563467.2016.1201803 · Cited by 26
Metadata
- Authors
- Trampusch, C., & Palier, B.
- Venue
- New Political Economy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-02-22
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 437-454
- ISSN
- 1356-3467 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9923
- OpenAlex
- W2290955396
- Cited by
- 328
- References
- 52
- FWCI
- 77.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2016-04-29)
- Open access
- closed
- Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-LABX-0091, ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02)
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/13563467.2015.1134465
- The paper
- Trampusch, C., & Palier, B. (2016). Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality. New Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2015.1134465
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
