Conducting Political Research PDF Download

Author: Endsley Terrence Jones
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Unusual in its degree of mathematical rigor, this book evolves a new approach to research methods in political science which is particularly applicable to roll-call analyisis. Using some calculus, it introduces matrix algebra and factor analysis and develops new methods of accumulative scaling and cluster and factor analysis. -- Back cover.

Author: Maryann Barakso
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113662239X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This text starts by explaining the fundamental goal of good political science research—the ability to answer interesting and important questions by generating valid inferences about political phenomena. Before the text even discusses the process of developing a research question, the authors introduce the reader to what it means to make an inference and the different challenges that social scientists face when confronting this task. Only with this ultimate goal in mind will students be able to ask appropriate questions, conduct fruitful literature reviews, select and execute the proper research design, and critically evaluate the work of others. The authors' primary goal is to teach students to critically evaluate their own research designs and others’ and analyze the extent to which they overcome the classic challenges to making inference: internal and external validity concerns, omitted variable bias, endogeneity, measurement, sampling, and case selection errors, and poor research questions or theory. As such, students will not only be better able to conduct political science research, but they will also be more savvy consumers of the constant flow of causal assertions that they confront in scholarship, in the media, and in conversations with others. Three themes run through Barakso, Sabet, and Schaffner’s text: minimizing classic research problems to making valid inferences, effective presentation of research results, and the nonlinear nature of the research process. Throughout their academic years and later in their professional careers, students will need to effectively convey various bits of information. Presentation skills gleaned from this text will benefit students for a lifetime, whether they continue in academia or in a professional career. Several distinctive features make this book noteworthy: A common set of examples threaded throughout the text give students a common ground across chapters and expose them to a broad range of subfields in the discipline. Box features throughout the book illustrate the nonlinear, "non-textbook" reality of research, demonstrate the often false inferences and poor social science in the way the popular press covers politics, and encourage students to think about ethical issues at various stages of the research process.

Author: Akan Malici
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351401890
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Nothing rings truer to those teaching political science research methods: students hate taking this course. Tackle the challenge and turn the standard research methods teaching model on its head with Political Science Research in Practice. Akan Malici and Elizabeth S. Smith engage students first with pressing political questions and then demonstrate how a researcher has gone about answering them, walking them through real political science research that contributors have conducted. Through the exemplary use of a comparative case study, field research, interviews, textual and interpretive research, statistical research, survey research, public policy and program evaluation, content analysis, and field experiments, each chapter introduces students to a method of empirical inquiry through a specific topic that will spark their interest and curiosity. Each chapter shows the process of developing a research question, how and why a particular method was used, and the rewards and challenges discovered along the way. Students can better appreciate why we need a science of politics—why methods matter—with these first-hand, issue-based discussions. The second edition now includes: Two completely new chapters on field experiments and a chapter on the textual/interpretative method. New topics, ranging from the Arab Spring to political torture to politically sensitive research in China to social networking and voter turnout. Revised and updated "Exercises and Discussion Questions" sections. Revised and updated "Interested to Know More" and "Recommended Resources" sections.

Author: Alan Monroe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429969295
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This text is a complete introduction to reseah methods in political science, covering all the topics typically included in a one semester undergraduate-level course. h concentrates on the basics of what a student needs to know how to do in order to be an effecise consumer of scientific research and begin to conduct his or her own research projects. The approach of ‘learning by doing” is encouraged through nUmeroUs examples and exercises. The book is written in an informal style, with minimal use of technical jargon. Alan D. Monroe (Ph.D.. Indiana Univrsity) has taught introductory research methods at Illinois Slate University for more than 25 years. He has published research on a variety of topics, particularly of public opinion and public policy in the U.S.. and has also conducted a number of research projects for governmental agencies and private clients, including surveys for political campaigns.

Author: Laurence F. Jones
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Longman
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This text introduces students to the discipline of political science and the research process by teaching them how to conduct basic political research without overwhelming them with statistical theorizing and calculation. Political Science Research has three objectives. First, it gives students the scope of the discipline by acquainting them with what political scientists do and study. Second, it familiarizes readers with the methods that political scientists use to examine pertinent questions. Third, the text guides readers through each stage of the research process: topic selection, literature review, hypothesis formulation, data collection, input and analysis, and the writing of the final report.

Author: Lisa Harrison
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415226554
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
This text covers all the main aspects of political research, including what political research is, quantitative and qualitative methods, and how to conduct research.

Author: Craig Leonard Brians
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315510200
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Empirical Political Analysis introduces students to the full range of qualitative and quantitative methods used in political science research. Organized around all of the stages of the research process, this comprehensive text surveys designing experiments, conducting research, evaluating results, and presenting findings. With exercises in the text and in a companion lab manual, Empirical Political Analysis gives students applied insights on the scopes and methods of political science research. Features: Offers comprehensive coverage of quantitative and qualitative research methods in political science, a hallmark since it first published over 25 years ago. Covers the research process from start to finish—hypothesis formation, literature review, research design, data gathering, data analysis, and research report writing. Includes in-depth examples of political science research to give discipline-specific instruction on political analysis. Features a “Practical Research Ethics” box in every chapter to make students aware of common ethical dilemmas and potential solutions to them. Written by political scientists who actively publish in subfields ranging from comparative politics to environmental policy to political communications to voting behavior. Includes learning goals, key terms, and research examples to help students engage and explore the most important concepts.

Author: W. Phillips Shively
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351979426
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
The Craft of Political Research is a non-technical introduction to research design and analysis in political science, emphasizing the choices we make when we design a research project and analyze its results. The book’s approach centers on asking an interesting research question, and then designing inquiry into the question so as to eliminate as many alternative explanations as possible. How do we develop theory, and what constitutes a good research question? How do we develop measures and gather evidence to answer a question? How do we analyze our findings? Students will be introduced to such topics as multidimensional concepts, levels of measurement, validity, reliability, random and non-random measurement error, sampling, case selection, causality, experimental and quasi-experimental design, statistical inference, and regression and correlation analysis. Throughout, the emphasis is on understanding the "back story" of analysis — why do we measure in a particular way, why do we choose one design as against another, why do we conduct our analysis as we do. Emphasizing the internal logic of research methods and the collaborative nature of the research process, the greatest strength of the book is its clarity and the large range of political science examples it provides. It works at a conceptual level, seeking an understanding of the principles that underlie techniques and the reasons that we choose them. New to this edition: Updated and international examples from the US, UK, Latin America and China amongst others, and international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations. New section, "Reading Political Science" reviews sources of published political research, with some broad principles for how to find good sources, and advises students on what to look for in reading a research report New section, "Gathering Accurate Information" reviews published sources of data, such as UNESCO, and offers advice about how to use such sources. It advises students on how to gather data in personal interviews and it acquaints them with publicly available data sets for secondary analysis. Online material featuring revised learning objectives for each chapter, and a new section offering projects and questions for each chapter.

Author: Rosalee A. Clawson
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1483305155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Conducting Empirical Analysis is an ideal way to marry substance with skills, getting students to experience the joy of discovery firsthand. Through straightforward instruction and guided examples, Clawson and Oxley show students how to conduct web-based data analysis using UC Berkeley’s Survey Documentation and Analysis (available online for free) to answer questions about party identification or attitude stability, and to measure racial prejudice and political knowledge. Exercises cover a range of data collection techniques, survey research, and statistical analyses, ramping up from multiple-choice and open-ended questions to mini-research projects. An instructor’s guide with solutions is available for adopters.

Author: Scott Desposato
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317438663
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
For most of political science's history, discussions about professional ethics had nothing to do with human subjects. Professional ethics involved integrity in the classroom, fair tenure and promotion rule, and the careful avoidance of plagiarism. As most research was observational, there was little need for attention to how scholarly activities might directly affect the subjects of our work. Times have changed. The dramatic growth in the use of experiments in social science, especially overseas, is generating unexpected ethical controversies. The purpose of this volume is to identify, debate, and propose practical solutions to the most critical of these new ethical issues. A leading team of internationally distinguished political science scholars presents the first examination of the practical and ethical challenges of research with human subjects in social science and policy studies. Part 1 examines contextual challenges provided by experiments conducted overseas - questions of culture, religion, security, and poverty. Part 2 examines questions of legal constraints on research, focusing on questions of foreign review of international experiments. Part 3 tackles the critical issues in field experiments, including deception and consent, impact on elections and careers, the boundaries of the public officials' exemption, and the use of partner organizations to avoid Institutional Review Body (IRB) review. Part 4 considers strategies for the future, including training and education, IRB reform, institutional changes, and norm development.