At its best, political science research is empirical, systematic, comparative, and provides cogent and durable explanations – not just descriptions – of political behaviour wherever it is observed. What a pity then that the Handbook of Political Party Funding, for all its strengths in these areas, also exemplifies one of the pathologies of contemporary academic research and publishing. With its self-referential concerns and methods, its jargon, and its forbidding price, this book is largely inaccessible to anyone outside the circle of professional researchers.