Video lectures about the research process
The GLD Research Seminar Series provides a broad overview of the different aspects of research. This is a great resource to introduce new topics to individuals at every level and for people who are wondering if a career in research is right for them.
Research Safety and Ethics
Presenter: Isabell Schierenbeck, Professor in Political Science at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg.
Recommended Reading:
Grimm, Jannis J.; Koehler, Kevin; Lust, Ellen; Saliba, Ilyas and Schierenbeck, Isabell (2020). Safer Field Research in the Social Sciences. A Guide to Human and Digital Security in Hostile Environments. Sage UK.
Framing A Research Project
Presenter: Lauren Honig, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College.
Recommended Readings:
Przeworski, A., & Salomon, F. (1995). The Art of Writing Proposals. Brooklyn, NY: Social Science Research Council.
Geddes, B. (2003). “Big Questions, Little Answers: How the Questions You Choose Affect the Answer You Get,” in Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics. University of Michigan Press, pp. 27-48.
Literature Review Strategies
Presenter: Ellen Lust, Founding Director of the Governance and Local Development Institute and Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
Recommended Readings:
Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2019). “What is a Literature Overview?” In: Writing the Literature Review: A Practical Guide. New York: The Guilford Press. (Chapter in an e-book).
Randolph, J. (2009). “A Guide to Writing Dissertation Literature Review,” Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14, 13.
Quantitative Literacy: Introduction to Quantitative Thinking
Presenter: Erica Ann Metheney, Statistician and Head of GLD Data.
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Explain the importance of quantitative literacy
- Select appropriate data summary techniques for different data types
- Critically evaluate graphical representations of data
Quantitative Literacy: Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Testing, and Linear Regression
Presenter: Erica Ann Metheney, Statistician and Head of GLD Data.
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Describe the purpose and general structure of a confidence interval
- Interpret confidence intervals
- Identify the various items that impact the width of a confidence interval
- Describe the philosophical logic of hypothesis testing
- Interpret output from a hypothesis test
Quantitative Literacy: Assessing Quantitative Results
Presenter: Erica Ann Metheney, Statistician and Head of GLD Data.
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Identify the key components to assess in quantitative work
- Identify common issues/mistakes/weaknesses in quantitative work
- Identify best practices for common quantitative methods
Conducting Interviews
Presenter: Marwa Shalaby, Assistant Professor in the departments of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Recommended Readings:
Aberbach, J., & Rockman, B. (2002). “Conducting and Coding Elite Interviews.” PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 673-676. doi:10.1017/S1049096502001142
Roulston, K. (2010). “Considering Quality in Qualitative Interviewing.” Qualitative Research, 10(2), 199-228.
Glas, A. (2021). “Positionality, Power, and Positions of Power: Reflexivity in Elite Interviewing.” PS: Political Science & Politics, 54(3), 438-442. doi:10.1017/S1049096520002048
Experimental Research
Presenter: Daniel Masterson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Recommended Readings:
Gerber, A. S., & Green, D. P. (2012). Field experiments: Design, analysis, and interpretation. Chapters 1 and 2.
Archival Research
Presenter: Yusuf Magiya, Postdoctoral Associate at the Social Science Division at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Recommended Readings:
Balcells, L., & Sullivan, C. M. (2018). “New Findings from Conflict Archives: An Introduction and Methodological Framework.” Journal of Peace Research, 55(2), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317750217
Cusack, T., Iversen, T., & Soskice, D. (2007). “Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems.” American Political Science Review, 101(3), 373-391. doi:10.1017/S0003055407070384
Cusack, T., Iversen, T., & Soskice, D. (2010). “Coevolution of Capitalism and Political Representation: The Choice of Electoral Systems.” American Political Science Review, 104(2), 393403. doi:10.1017/S0003055410000134
Ginzburg, C. (1991). “Checking the Evidence: The Judge and the Historian.” Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 79–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343716
Greenstein, F. I., & Immerman, R. H. (1992). “What Did Eisenhower Tell Kennedy about Indochina? The Politics of Misperception.” The Journal of American History, 79(2), 568–587. https://doi.org/10.2307/2080047
Kreuzer, M. (2010). “Historical Knowledge and Quantitative Analysis: The Case of the Origins of Proportional Representation.” American Political Science Review, 104(2), 369-392. doi:10.1017/S0003055410000122
Kim, D. (2022). “Taming Abundance: Doing Digital Archival Research (as Political Scientists).” PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(3), 530-538. doi:10.1017/S104909652100192X
Lieberman, E. S. (2010). “Bridging the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Best Practices in the Development of Historically Oriented Replication Databases.” Annual Review of Political Science, 13, 37-59.
Lustick, I. S. (1996). “History, Historiography, and Political Science: Multiple Historical Records and the Problem of Selection Bias.” The American Political Science Review, 90(3), 605–618. https://doi.org/10.2307/2082612
Participant Observation
Presenter: May Tamimova, PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oxford.
Recommended Readings:
Crane, Julia G. and Angrosino, Michael V. (1992). Field Projects in Anthropology: A Student Handbook, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. (Project Five: Participant Observation, p. 64-74).
Birckhead, Jim. (2004). “And I Can’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore: Fieldwork in Two Settings,” in Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation, eds. Hume, Lynne., and Mulcock, Jane. New York: Columbia UP, pp. 95-107.
Concepts and Measurement
Presenter: Robert Kubinec, Assistant Professor of Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Recommended Readings:
Flake, J. K., & Fried, E. I. (2020). Measurement schmeasurement: Questionable measurement practices and how to avoid them. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3(4), 456-465.
Gerring, J. (2012). Mere description. British Journal of Political Science, 42(4), 721-746.
Knutsen, C. H., Marquardt, K. L., Seim, B., Coppedge, M., Medzihorsky, J., Edgell, A. B., ... & Lindberg, S. I. (2023). Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding. V-Dem Working Paper, 140.
Little, A., & Meng, A. (2023). Subjective and objective measurement of democratic backsliding. Available at SSRN 4327307.
Survey Research
Presenter: Michael Robbins, Director and Co-Principal Investigator of Arab Barometer.
Recommended Readings:
Groves, R. M., Fowler Jr, F. J., Couper, M. P., Lepkowski, J. M., Singer, E., & Tourangeau, R. (2011). Survey Methodology. John Wiley & Sons. Ch. 1 and Ch. 5
Process Tracing
Presenter: David Waldner, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.
Recommended Readings:
Waldner, D. (2014). “What Makes Process Tracing Good? Causal Mechanisms, Causal Inference, and the Completeness Standard in Comparative Politics,” In A. Bennett & J. Checkel (Eds.), Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 126-152. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139858472.008
Bennett, A. (2008). “Process Tracing: A Bayesian Perspective,” in J. Box-Steffensmeier, H. E. Brady, and D. Collier (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 702-721. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286546.003.0030