This assignment has three parts:
1)come up with a reasonable research question.
2)Using JSTOR, search for concepts related to your research question and decide on two scholarly journal articles that you believe might be related to your research question. tell me which journal the article is in, who the author is, and what the title of the article is.
3)Provide a one-paragraph summary of each article and let me know if after reading the article if you believe it is related to your research question or not (it is okay if it is notthats part of the literature review process).
Login to jstor using the link below:
https://login.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.jstor.org%2f
Notes:
Three purposes of research (exploration, description, and explanation)
Exploration
Exploratory studies are typically done for three purposes:
To satisfy the researchers curiosity and desire for a better understanding
To test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study
To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study
Exploratory research often begins by identifying what the key variables are.
Example: Lets say that I just started to become interested in the issue of school consolidation.
One of my first tasks would be to try to identify those variables that are conceptually linked to school consolidation.
What might some of these variables be?
Community involvement
Budget
Property taxes
School size
Enrollments
Regional geographic information
Exploratory studies are essential whenever a researcher is breaking new ground.
Main shortcoming of exploratory studies:
They seldom provide satisfactory answers to research questions.
Why? Because they are often not definitive
Description
The main purpose of descriptive studies is to describe situations and events.
Answers the questions: What? Where? When? How?
Researcher observes and then describes what was observed.
Different than exploratory, because the observation is careful, deliberate and scientific.
Typically more accurate than casual observations
U.S. Census bureau is an excellent example of descriptive social research.
Census bureau collects all kinds of descriptive information on people and places in the United States.
Gender
Race
Mortality rates
Age demographics
Etc
More comprehensive than an exploratory study, but still may not provide the answers the researcher is looking for
Explanation
Purpose of explanatory research is to explain why things happen the way they do.
Answers the question: Why?
Explanatory research is often tied to descriptive research, but is different:
A descriptive research project would report on the voting intentions of the electorate.
An explanatory research project would report why people choose the candidate they do.
Voters making an assessment on candidates stance on health care, candidates electability, etc
Time and Research
Cross-Sectional Studies
Longitudinal Studies
Trend study
Cohort study
Panel study
Cross-Sectional Study
A cross-Sectional study involves observations of a sample or cross-section of a population or phenomenon that are made at one point in time.
Strengths:
Usually easy to gather information
Provides a good snapshot of a particular point in time.
Works best for exploratory and descriptive types of studies.
Weaknesses:
Time-bound to one point in time, making it difficult to extrapolate to earlier or later points in time.
Does not always work well for explanatory types of studies.
Example: Calling principals to discuss educational issues one month after September 11, 2001
Longitudinal Studies
Longitudinal studies are designed to permit observations of the same phenomenon over an extended period of time.
Someone interested in explaining how the Supreme Courts interpretation of the 1st amendment right to free speech could examine Supreme Court opinions on record over a long period of time.
Trend studies: a type of longitudinal study that examines changes within the population over time.
A researcher interested in explaining unemployment could look at population data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Another trend study could look at whether or not people become more or less interested in politics during election years. Survey data from several election and non-election years could answer this question.
Longitudinal Studies
Cohort studies: the researcher examines specific sub-populations, or cohorts, as they change over time.
Some possible cohort groups which could be studied:
Vietnam veterans
Persons born in the 1990s
Couples who were married in 2015
Longitudinal Studies
Panel Studies: the researcher examines the same set of people over time.
Examples:
A researcher could interview the same sample of voters each month.
A researcher could conduct an intensive study of the behavior of 20 inmates in the county jail over time.
Research Design/Proposal
Usually, research proposals are drafted prior to conducting the actual research.
Why draft a research proposal?
Necessary for grant applications
Needed to get IRB approval
Can be a way to let others know what kind of research you are interested in doing
Is a good way to solicit suggestions for making your research project better
Problem or objective
What exactly do you want to study? Why is it worth studying?
Literature Review
What have others said about this topic? Where is your research going to fit into this literature? Are there flaws in past research that you can remedy?
Subjects for study
Whom or what will you be studying in order to collect data? What are the risks to the subjects? What steps will you take to ensure they are protected?
Measurement
What are the key variables in your study? How are they operationalized? Have you developed your own measurement, or are you using a pre-existing measure?
Data collection methods
How will you actually collect the data? Will you need a sample? How will you approach the sampling process? Will it be an experiment? How will the experiment be conducted?
Analysis
Indicate the kind(s) of analysis you plan to conduct. What is the rationale for the analysis methods you have chosen
Schedule
What is the rough timetable for your research? Having a timetable is a good way to keep yourself on track.
Budget
When asking someone to cover the costs of your research, you will need to provide a budget
Research Topics
Where do research topics come from?
Previous studies
Television, or other media
Personal experiences
Discussions with family or friends
Something that you read somewhere
Basicallyyour topic should be something that you are curious about
Political Science is inherently interested with just about anything related to:Politics international relations Government Public policies Law Regulations The media Economics Democracy Congress, the President, the Courts, or Public agencies So if in doubt begin by selecting one of the above
Your topic must be about things, phenomenon, or patterns that can be observed and measured.This rules out things that you can never observe or that you cannot know about with certainty. Cant study unicorns, ghosts, Western Jackalopes, Loch Ness Monster,
Narrowing the Topic
Think about: what is it that is of interest to me about this topic?
Try to narrow the focus down into two related concepts.
Lets say that I am interested in the economic development.
To narrow my focus, I try to choose two concepts:
Infrastructure spending and economic development (dont use this for the paper)
Then I craft a possible connection between these two:
Commerce does not happen in a vacuum. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide the infrastructure necessary to facilitate economic activity and economic growth
Making sure that your concepts are measurable:
Infrastructure spending
Per capita dollars spent on local government infrastructure
Percentage of the local government budget allocated for capital or infrastructure projects
Economic development
Per capita GDP within city limits (measure of economic consumption)
Percentage of population growth within city limits (measure of economic prosperity)
Once you have measurable concepts, simply state your concepts and the connection between the two in the form of a question:
Concepts: infrastructure spending and economic development
Research question: Do cities that spend more per capita on infrastructure see greater economic development
Literature Review
Organization, organization…
Best not to be haphazard in your reading.
Follow these simple steps:
Locate relevant studies
Read thoroughly to discover the major findings and methods
Take notes as you are reading
While fresh in your mind, organize what you have read and write clearly about the studies in a way that builds context around the research question
