International records / OpenAlex research

Measurement and Bias

Perhaps the most fundamental barriers to good comparative research are measurement and the problems of comparability of measures. If comparative analysis is to be at all meaningful then we must be sure that the same terms mean the same things in the different contexts within which the research is conducted. In particular, the comparative analyst must be concerned with the problem of establishing equivalent meaning for concepts within different social and cultural contexts. Words that we use to describe political life in one country, or that have theoretical meaning in one context, may elsewher…