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In the age of information overload, big data, social media and contestation over ‘fake news’ based on ‘evidence’ and ‘facts’, it is more important than ever to equip students of politics with the necessary skills to read, interpret and critically assess conclusions, political claims and government findings based on strong methodological foundations. “Science, Scientific Discovery and Statistics" aims to turn students into competent producers, and critical consumers, of ‘facts’ or scientifically based information. We will review the process by which facts are developed using a ‘scientific method’, which will include ontology (what is reality), epistemology (nature, sources and justification of reality or facts), methodology (how do we prove/disprove claims about reality) and methods (what methods are available to social scientists). The second part of this course will give particular attention to quantitative methods in terms of i) the quality of political, economic and financial data; ii) introduction to causality, correlation, necessity and sufficiency in social sciences, and iii) the ethics of scientific research, academic debate and public critique. The main aim is to turn students into data aware consumers of social science research, before moving to more detailed methodological training in year 2 methods course.