Before revision: While some influential works by methods scholars have argued that the ability of process-tracing to make causal claims is limited by low degrees of freedom, methodologists widely reject that the "degrees of freedom" problem applies to research that uses process-tracing, given that qualitative research entails different logics than quantitative research (where scholars do need to wary of degrees of freedom).
After revision: beWhile some influential works by methods scholars have argued that the ability of process-tracing to make causal claims is limited by low degrees of freedom, methodologists widely reject that the "degrees of freedom" problem applies to research that uses process-tracing, given that qualitative research entails different logics than quantitative research (where scholars do need to wary of degrees of freedom).