Domingo Ribeiro Soriano (University of Valencia, Spain), Kun Huang Huarng (Feng Chia University, Taiwan) and Norat Roig-Tierno (Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain) organize a Special Section Issue titled “Configurational Comparative Research Methodologies” in the journal Quality & Quantity. The Special Section Issue seeks to provide a forum for topical issues that demonstrate the usefulness of configurational comparative research methodologies. A description of the method, its empirical applications, and potential methodological advances that increase its usefulness in research and practice will be emphasized. Submissions should be made using Editorial Manager (authors must say in a cover note that their paper is intended for the Special Section Issue). The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2015.

Four methodological contributions on Qualitative Comparative Analysis fully published in Quality & Quantity: “Contextual Analyses with QCA-Methods” by Thomas Denk and Sarah Lehtinen; “But not Both: The Exclusive Disjunction in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)” by Ursula Hackett; “Parameters of Fit and Intermediate Solutions in Multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis” by Alrik Thiem and “Parsimony and Causality” by Michael Baumgartner. Three further QCA articles as advance online publications: “Analyzing Multilevel Data with QCA: Yet Another Straightforward Procedure” by Alrik Thiem; “ Analysing Necessity and Sufficiency with Qualitative Comparative Analysis: How do Results Vary as Case Weights Change?” by Barry Cooper and Judith Glaesser; and “ Why Simulations are Appropriate for Evaluating Qualitative Comparative Analysis” by Ingo Rohlfing.