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Within the vast archipelago of data-analysis tools, factor analy-sis and principal component analysis are among the islands more frequently visited by human scientists. Their success is due both to the century-old status they have reached, and to the fact that they are easy to apply nowadays, thanks, in particular, to the availability of dedicated data analysis software packages. Today even the most inexperienced student can avail of this user-friendly software, entrusting it with full responsibility for the numerous operations the techniques themselves require. This modus operandi produces results of scarce substantial interest and dubious scientific quality. This book is devoted to those who wish to exercise full intellectual control over the tools they employ, while acquiring the ability to critically appraise the results obtained in relation to the objectives of their research projects. Giovanni Di Franco is professor of social-research Methodology at Rome's State Sapienza University. He is the author of: Analisi delle corrispondenze e altre tecniche multivariate per variabili categoriali (2006), L'analisi dei dati con SPSS (2009), Il campionamento nelle scienze umane (2010), Dalla matrice dei dati all'analisi trivariata (2011), Tecniche e modelli di analisi multivariata (2011). He directs the La Cassetta degli attrezzi series published by FrancoAngeli. Alberto Marradi, once full professor of Methodology of the social sciences at the University of Florence, now directs a master's course in Methodology at the University of Buenos Aires. He also directs the Methodology of the Human Sciences series on behalf of the Italian association of sociology's methodological section. He has acted as vice-president of the International Sociological Association's Methodological Research Committee. He is the author of: Concetti e metodo nella ricerca sociale (1984), L'analisi monovariata (1993), Linee guida per l'analisi bivariata dei dati nelle scienze sociali (1997).