COMPASSS

Konstanz Methods Excellence Workshops: Introduction to Causal Process Tracing (Online course)
2026-02-23 - 2026-02-27 | Online
Taking a hands-on approach, this five-day online course introduces you to the essentials of Process Tracing and develops both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills to set-up and conduct a full-fledged PT-study.
Intructors: Hilde van Meegdenburg, Leiden University, Netherlands

5th Annual QCA Conference of the Americas
2026-03-18 - 2026-03-20 | University of Cincinnati, 2600 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States
The 5th Annual QCA Conference of the Americas (AQCA2026) will be held March 18-20, 2026 at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati, USA. See https://compasss.org/aqca/ for the call for proposals, registration process, conference program, and complete details.
The QCA Conference of the Americas (AQCA) provides a venue for the broad, cross-disciplinary community of researchers and practitioners working with configurational-comparative methods and approaches to gather together to present and receive feedback on current research projects, share theoretical and methodological developments, and discuss new directions in configurational-comparative research practices. Bringing together the diverse set of QCA empirical and methodological researchers, AQCA offers a supportive environment for the community to meet, engage in dialogue, network, learn, and collectively move forward on advancing the configurational-comparative perspective.

Introduction to Causal Data Analysis & Modeling with Coincidence Analysis
2026-06-08 - 2026-06-11 | University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare and the Peder Sather Center, Berkeley, United States
This workshop offers an intensive four-day introduction to causal modeling with Coincidence Analysis (CNA), a novel configurational comparative method of data analysis geared towards causal complexity, which has seen a considerable uptick in applications in recent years (click here for references). No prior knowledge of CNA is required.
In plenary lectures, the main developer of CNA, Michael Baumgartner, and a team of experienced CNA methodologists and practitioners (Drs. Cragun, Freitas, Huang, and Miech) will guide participants through the nuts and bolts of configurational data analysis and cutting-edge methodological innovations, as well as offer advice on practical issues such as getting funded and published with CNA. In smaller practice groups, understanding of the material will also be deepened through applied exercises and the instructors will demonstrate how to make the most of current software for CNA.
From Boolean algebra and the philosophical roots of regularity theories of causation, over the basic ideas behind CNA’s search algorithm, and measures of fit to multi-outcome structures, model ambiguities, and robustness analyses, this introduction will enable participants to conduct CNA analyses themselves and review those of other researchers in a sophisticated manner. This will also be an opportunity to get to know researchers working with and on CNA from all over the world.
The workshop agenda is available here. You can register for the conference here.
Costs:

Early bird fee for registration prior to January 31, 2026 is $850.
Standard registration (February 1, 2026 – April 15, 2026) is $950.
Late registration (April 16th 2026 – May 15th, 2026) is $1050.

Crisp and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Course at GSERM, St. Gallen, Switzerland | June 8-12, 2026
2026-06-08 - 2026-06-12 | GSERM, University of St. Gallen, Tellstrasse 2 9000 St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Five-day QCA course as part of the Global School in Empirical Research Methods (GSERM), hosted by the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Course Overview
This intensive workshop provides a thorough introduction to both crisp- and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Participants receive hands-on instruction with the fsQCA software package and develop the skills necessary to design and execute research projects using set-analytic approaches.
Who should attend:
This course is intended for doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty across the social sciences who are interested in studying configurational phenomena and causal complexity using set-analytic methods.
About QCA
Qualitative Comparative Analysis combines analytical techniques with a conceptual framework ideal for studying configurational phenomena. It excels at analyzing causally complex situations characterized by multiple, conjunctural causation—where various factors interact in complex ways to produce outcomes.
Developed in the 1980s by sociologist and political scientist Charles Ragin, QCA bridges the gap between primarily qualitative, case-oriented approaches and primarily quantitative, variable-oriented approaches.
QCA employs Boolean algebra to analyze set relations, allowing researchers to formally identify patterns of necessity and sufficiency for outcomes of interest. Since its inception, QCA has evolved into a diverse set of techniques sharing a set-analytic foundation, encompassing both descriptive and inferential methodologies.
Applications
As a formal approach for data analysis, QCA can be applied to essentially any setting, but it is particularly valuable for analyzing datasets with relatively few observations (traditionally 10-50 cases). Recent developments have expanded QCA applications to medium- and large-N situations involving hundreds or even thousands of cases. While these applications require methodological adaptations, they maintain QCA’s advantages for analyzing configurational phenomena and causal complexity.
Contact Information
For questions or additional information, please contact me at fiss@marshall.usc.edu.
The complete course manual can be found here: Complete course details and application information here

5th International Conference on Current Issues in Coincidence Analysis
2026-06-12 - 2026-06-13 | University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare and the Peder Sather Center, Berkeley, United States
We are pleased to announce the 5th International Conference on “Current Issues on Coincidence Analysis,” scheduled to take place on June 12-13, 2026, at UC Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. This conference serves as a premier platform for the exchange of ideas and collaboration between Coincidence Analysis (CNA) methodologists and applied researchers.
Conference Scope: The conference will feature discussions on the latest methodological developments in CNA, addressing open questions and challenges in the field. Moreover, researchers will have the opportunity to showcase exemplary applications of CNA from any discipline, as well as theoretical or conceptual developments.
Highlights:

Invited talks by leading CNA experts
Contributed paper presentations
Networking opportunities

We now invite the submission of extended abstracts for contributed papers. Submissions may cover three main areas: Applied (utilizing CNA to analyze empirical data), methodological (further developing the CNA method and its technical aspects), or theoretical (advancing the theory of causation underpinning CNA). We request extended abstracts of up to 1000 words that clearly outline the research question, methodology, key findings, and contribution to the field. All submissions will undergo a peer-review process. To submit an abstract, fill out this form. The submission deadline is March 13, 2026. Notification of acceptance will occur by March 28, 2026.
Conference Venue: UC Berkeley, School of Social Welfare
Contact Information: For any inquiries or additional information, please contact michael.baumgartner@uib.no.

Introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
2026-06-29 - 2026-07-03 | Central European University, Vienna, Austria
This five-day course introduces Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a set-theoretic method that enables researchers to analyze causal complexity by identifying necessary and sufficient configurations of conditions for an outcome. The course combines conceptual foundations with hands-on exercises, including calibration, necessity and sufficiency analysis, truth tables, and solution interpretation using R.
Instructor:
Eva Thomann, University of Konstanz

Introduction to Process Tracing Methods
2026-06-29 - 2026-07-03 | Central European University, Vienna, Austria
This five-day course provides an introduction to process tracing as a qualitative method for within-case causal inference. Participants learn how to theorize causal mechanisms, collect and assess empirical evidence, and apply process tracing to their own research designs.
Instructor:
Hilde van Meegdenburg, Leiden University

Introduction to R
2026-06-29 - 2026-07-03 | Central European University, Vienna, Austria
This introductory course provides a practical introduction to R for social scientists. Participants learn the basics of R programming, data import and cleaning, data transformation, visualization, and reproducible research workflows.
Instructor:
Daniel Kovarek, Central European University

Comparative Research Designs: Building and Conducting Your Comparative Project
2026-07-06 - 2026-07-10 | Central European University, Vienna, Austria
This advanced course supports participants in developing and implementing rigorous comparative research designs. Topics include the logic of comparison, case selection, data collection strategies, analytical approaches across qualitative and quantitative methods, and writing a coherent and defensible research design.
Instructor:
Benoît Rihoux, Université catholique de Louvain

Advanced QCA and Set-Theoretical Multi-Methods Research
2026-07-06 - 2026-07-10 | Central European University, Vienna, Austria
This advanced course builds on introductory QCA and focuses on state-of-the-art developments in set-theoretic methods. Topics include limited diversity, robustness checks, enhanced standard analysis, theory evaluation, and combining QCA with other qualitative methods such as process tracing, using R.
Instructor:
Ioana-Elena Oana, European University Institute

QCA Workshop at AOM 2026 (Info: Parts 1, 2 & 3)
2026-08-01 | Academy of Management, Boston, MA, United States
Professional Development Workshop (PDW) at the Academy of Management (AoM) Conference
If you’re doing management research with QCA, consider joining us on Saturday, Aug 1 2026 10:00AM – 1:00PM ET (GMT-4/UTC-4) at Marriott in Franklin 8!

Part 1-3
The PDW includes 3 Parts. If you have no or only a little knowledge of, and experience with, QCA you can join us during Part 1 to learn the basic “nuts and bolts” of QCA and configurational logic and understand if this might be the right tool for your research project. If you are also interested in current methodological issues and advances in QCA, join us during Part 2! For those who’d like to get feedback on one of your ongoing QCA research papers, join us for Part 3!

Registration?
If you’re joining us for Part 1 and Part 2, you do not need to register (PDW is open to all conference attendees).
If you’d like to participate in Part 3, please submit an extended abstract of 1,500-2,000 words to Anna @ anna.slawik@uj.edu.pl by 15 July 2026. In your abstract, please summarize your study’s topical area, theoretical background, research gap, and question, and include details about the data, analytical strategy (for empirical papers), and preliminary results. Please indicate your target journal and add a few questions you would like the reviewers to address. A panel of QCA experts will review all submissions and evaluate their fit with the PDW according to the clarity of purpose, methodological rigor, and innovative character of the research. We will inform you shortly, by 25 July 2026, about your opportunities to participate in Part 3.

Reading list
Finally, we offer a list of recommended pre-readings and QCA resources along with the PDW. If you’d like to receive the list of recommended pre-readings and resources get in touch with Anna Slawik (anna.slawik@uj.edu.pl).

Exploring Causal Complexity with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Lugano
2026-08-17 - 2026-08-21 | Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano West Campus, Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, Lugano, CH-6900, Switzerland
Causal complexity is everywhere in the social sciences—yet most researchers lack the systematic tools to capture it rigorously. In this intensive 5-day workshop (28 contact hours) you will learn how to design, apply, and publish empirical research with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in the R software environment. The course follows the comprehensive framework developed in Mello (2021, Georgetown University Press), progressing systematically from the foundations of QCA to advanced applications.
The course emphasizes research design alongside analytical techniques, addressing both conceptual foundations and practical application of QCA. You will follow an ideal-typical research process, starting with empirical illustrations of where and how QCA is used in the social sciences. Foundational sessions explore key principles, such as set theory, Boolean algebra, and the calibration of crisp and fuzzy sets, while guiding you through the analytical protocol for identifying patterns of causal complexity using truth tables and Boolean minimization.
The course progresses step by step, from study design to the interpretation of results, incorporating hands-on exercises with examples from published studies and R script templates to adapt for your own purposes. Advanced topics—including multi-method research, robustness tests, and recent developments in QCA—will be tailored to your needs and research interests. Opportunities to present your individual project and explore potential applications further enhance the workshop.
Designed to be inclusive, the workshop welcomes participants at all levels—from PhD students to senior researchers—and strikes a balance between theory, practical exercises, and individualized support. A strong emphasis on collaboration and dialogue in a small group setting ensures ample time for consultation, group discussions, and networking. By the end of the workshop, you will be equipped with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to apply QCA effectively, providing a robust framework for addressing causal complexity in comparative social science research.
This course is part of the 30th Summer School in Social Sciences Methods.
For more information, please visit https://www.usi.ch/en/education/summer-winter-school/ssm/exploring-causal-complexity-with-qualitative-comparative-analysis

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) course (in Italian) at UniMORE, Modena, Italy | September, 21-25 2026
2026-09-21 - 2026-09-25 | UniMORE, Modena, Italy
Five-day QCA course (taught in Italian) with focus on the calibration of qualitative data. The course is part the School in Qualitative and Mixed Methods hosted by the Fondazione Marco Biagi and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMORE), Italy.
Course Overview:
The course offers the theoretical and methodological foundations to perform QCA, from set-conceptualisation, to configurational thinking, to casing and data calibration. By means of examples and exercises, the course focusses on the collection and calibration of qualitative data, although the acquired knowledge and skills can be applied to any type of data for QCA performance. The participants will also take part in tutored classes in the afternoon to apply what they learned about QCA to their prospective or on-going research projects. The course also includes sessions on the practical application of QCA by using the R packages ‘QCA’ and ‘SetMethods’ in the R Studio environment by replicating selected published QCA papers.
More information on the course is available at this page.
Who should attend:
This course targets Italian-speaking master and doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty across the social and human sciences who are interested in configurational thinking using set-analytic methods to examine causal complexity.
About QCA
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) has been introduced by Charles C. Ragin’s (1987) book ‘The Comparative Method.’ Rooted in historical comparative research in political sciences, QCA expands the logic of qualitative analysis to multiple case studies. By following a formalised workflow, QCA allows researchers to perform systematic cross-case comparison and assess the ‘fit’ of the obtained results in comparative terms by relying on specific parameters.
Most interesting to QCA is the ‘shift of mindset’ required along all the stages of the research, as cases have to be considered elements belonging to conditions (factors) and outcomes (‘effects’) conceptualised as sets. QCA rests on configurational thinking for the representation and explanation of the selected cases in the sample through the concepts of necessity and sufficiency, equifinality, multifinality and limited diversity, which are the main elements composing causal complexity which characterises QCA.
QCA is typically applied to samples composed of small- or intermediate-n (usually, 10-50 cases), but it is increasingly used by researchers to examine large-n datasets from a configurational and set-theoretic logic.
Contact Information
For questions or additional information, please contact dr. Sofia Pagliarin by writing to pagliarin@ihs.nl

Japan QCA Conference 2026 - Paper Development Workshop (PDW)
2026-10-30 - 2026-10-31 | Waseda University, Tokoyo, Japan
Japan QCA Conference 2026 – 30 – 31 October 2026 in Tokyo

ジャパン QCA カンファレンス・論文開発ワークショップ（2026 年 10 月 30 日～31 日）の

In addition to keynote speeches by Carsten Schneider and Peer Fiss, the conference will feature a Paper Development Workshop (PDW) and an Expert Workshop (EW).

The Paper Development Workshop (PDW) at the 2026 Japan QCA Conference offers researchers who use QCA in their domains the chance to present their work at various stages of development. The workshop comprises small roundtable sessions in which QCA paper developers can receive detailed, constructive feedback from QCA experts and discuss the methodological aspects of their projects intensively.
The Call for Abstracts is open to researchers from various domains who wish to share QCA experiences, exchange ideas, and develop their own QCA papers. The PDW at the 2026 Japan QCA Conference is an in-person event hosted by Waseda University in Tokyo.
Submission Procedure
Please submit your abstract (maximum 500 words) via the following online form by 14 August 2026 at the latest. Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by an expert panel and may not be accepted if they are at an earlier stage than applying QCA, or if they are purely conceptual rather than an empirical application of QCA. The panel will also evaluate the clarity of purpose and the methodological rigor of the study. Therefore, your abstract must declare your QCA-based research design, including: (1) your research question(s); (2) the analytical framework; (3) the strategy for collecting raw data and calibration in your cases; and (4) the reasons for using QCA to address your research gap. Within the word limit, you should provide detailed information on the data, such as the number of cases and conditions, as well as the empirical findings of your QCA study. You will be notified about the acceptance of your abstract around 31August 2026, at which point you will be invited to submit a full paper of no more than 8,000 words for presentation at the PDW.
Conference fee and travel grant
There is no conference fee for the 2026 Japan QCA conference. PhD students who have no or insufficient funding to travel to Tokyo may apply for a travel grant. Expect travel grants to not exceed 50,000 YEN. We will provide further details when we notify you of the decision regarding your abstract.
The conference programme
Participants are warmly invited to attend the plenary session, at which Carsten Schneider and Peer Fiss will deliver keynote speeches. There will also be an expert roundtable session discussing the progress of QCA practices, as well as panel sessions where participants can learn about the latest methodological developments in QCA.
Further information
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email to jqca2026@gmail.com.
We look forward to receiving your submissions for this Call for Papers.
Your Organizational Team,
Sho Niikawa (Kobe University)
Airo Hino (Waseda University)

Japan QCA Conference 2026 - Expert Workshop
2026-10-30 - 2026-10-31 | Waseda University, Tokoyo, Japan
Japan QCA Conference 2026 – 30 – 31 October 2026 in Tokyo

ジャパン QCA カンファレンス・論文開発ワークショップ（2026 年 10 月 30 日～31 日）の

In addition to keynote speeches by Carsten Schneider and Peer Fiss, the conference will feature a Paper Development Workshop (PDW) and an Expert Workshop (EW).

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS & PAPERS Expert Workshop
The Expert Workshop (EW) at the 2026 Japan QCA Conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers engaged in the latest QCA and related method developments to present their work. The EW is not a conventional paper presentation session, but rather a discussion forum. The EW at the 2026 Japan QCA Conference is a hybrid event, combining elements of both in-person and online participation. English is the working language at the EW, and it is being hosted by Waseda University in Tokyo.
The Call for Abstracts invites experienced QCA researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to present, develop and discuss methodological issues related to QCA. While empirical applications can be used to illustrate these issues, the main focus of the abstracts should be on developing QCA or a related method.
Submission Procedure
Please submit your abstract (maximum 500 words) via this online form by 14 August 2026 at the latest. You will be notified about the acceptance of your abstract around 31 August 2026. At this point, you will be invited to submit a full paper, although this is not necessary. Since the EW is an open discussion forum, QCA experts are welcome to participate even if they are not presenting a paper.
Conference fee and travel grant
There is no conference fee for the 2026 Japan QCA conference.
The conference programme
There will be a plenary session, as well as an expert roundtable session to discuss the progress of QCA practices. QCA experts are also warmly invited to attend the Paper Development Workshop on 30–31 October. During thisworkshop, paper developers will receive feedback from experts on their research projects, which use QCA and related methods.
Further information
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email to jqca2026@gmail.com.
We look forward to receiving your submissions for this Call for Papers.
Your Organizational Team,
Sho Niikawa (Kobe University)
Airo Hino (Waseda University)
