UNIVERSITY OF
CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
DEPARTMENT
OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
FALL
2004
POL 2013: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
Professor: Dr. Jan C. Hardt
Class
Meets: MWF 10:00 -10:50 a.m. in LA 119
Office
Hours: MWF
12‑12:50 p.m., TTh 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., and other times by appointment
Office
and Phone: 974-5840 in LA 102B
E-mail
address: jhardt@ucok.edu
(preferred method of communication)
This
course is intended to introduce the student to the scope of political science
research and the methods that are used within it. Your goal after taking this course is to have
a better understanding of how political science is researched and why we use
particular methods to accomplish our research. Topics will include:
measurement, research design, sampling, surveys, and the various statistical
techniques that accompany this research.
In addition, we will define variables, collect data, and prepare it for
statistical analysis. As a result, this course is probably different from most
political science courses that you have taken.
That honestly tends to scare some students at first, because this class
is so different from their other political science classes. But you should know that there is no
prerequisite for taking this course, and no background in information
management is presumed.
This
course essentially splits itself into two parts. During the first half of the course, we will
focus on research methods, learning the theories, hypothesis construction, and
how to do research. The second part of
this course focuses on the actual methods that are used. This is the part that features some
statistics. While this course makes use of some basic statistical techniques,
it is not intended to be a statistics course.
As a result, we will use Microcase which has a lower learning curve than
some of the other statistical packages out there, but it will also enable you
to get your hands dirty with some good number crunching without having to learn
a difficult computer program.
Objectives of this
Course: By the time you are finished with this class,
you should be able to do the following:
Understand
the terminology of political science methodology, including hypotheses, null
hypotheses, concepts, formal theory, etc.
Know
the basic format of a research article, and be able to describe the various
parts -- no matter what the subject.
Take
a mess of data and organize it into some coherent form, including charts, etc.
and then talk about the trends, or lack of trends in the data.
Examine
any type of data chart (pie, line, map, etc.) and be able to interpret the
chart, determine the unit of analysis, talk about the trends, etc.
Be
a whiz at using a spreadsheet, one of the best computer tools ever invented.
Conduct
skilled searches on the Internet (including all of the good political science
databases!) and be able to use the Internet to find the appropriate statistics
to complete your work.
Be
able to read a methods-based research article, no matter what the subject (but
particularly those in political science!) and be able to give a basic summary
of what the author did, his/her hypotheses, results, and findings.
Know
some of the basic statistical techniques so that when you encounter this stuff
in real life (and you will at some point, trust me!) that you will have a fair
idea of what’s going on.
Requirements of the
Course: You will notice below that I have spelled
out the requirements of this course in some detail. I have done this so that you will know what
I expect from you and what you should expect of yourself in this course. For this reason, I have given the deadlines
for all exams and papers in this syllabus, as well as how these requirements
are weighted in the final grade. Please
read these requirements carefully, and if you have any questions about them, I
will be glad to answer them. Just stop
by after class or during my office hours.
1.
PARTICIPATION IN CLASS: Since the class
size is relatively small, participation in class and completion of the assigned
readings are expected. This class
features relatively little reading compared to most political science courses,
but the reading that is included is very important. There is A
STRONG EXPECTATION with this course that you will READ EVERY CHAPTER ASSIGNED and ATTEND EVERY CLASS. Research
methods/Information management is different from some other courses in that it
involves learning additive pieces of information over the course of a
semester. Thus, missing a few classes could
mean that you might have trouble not only for that week, but also for the rest
of the semester. Many people have compared research methods to learning a
foreign language and they may be right! I may call on people at random so that the entire class can
benefit from your input. Moreover,
attendance will be taken and this attendance will become part of your
participation grade. If you know ahead
of time that you will be missing a certain class, you should not only be
prepared to get notes for that class from a classmate, but you might also want
to inform me ahead of time to find out what you will miss. Your participation and attendance will count
for 5% of your total grade. I will give
extra points for perfect attendance, and your attendance will begin to count
against you after the third absence.
2.
EXAMINATIONS:
There will be two interim exams and a final. Your exams will include a combination of
Microcase, fill-in, short answer, multiple choice and some calculation
questions. The exams will cover all
readings, and the material covered in lectures/discussions. If you neglect to take any exam, that exam
will be recorded as a 0, not an F. This can make a difference in final grades,
often meaning an F instead of a C.
Make-up
policy for the exams is as follows: Students with legitimate excuses -- i.e.
serious illness, death, etc. -- must notify me that they will not be able to
take the exam and explain why PRIOR
to the scheduled exam date. You can call
the department office (X5839), my office (X5840), or have someone leave a note
outside my door. It is under rare
circumstances that I will allow a student to make up an exam without prior
notification. This is done to be fair to
all students. If I consider the reasons for missing an exam to be justified, a
make-up will be given. Make-up
examinations should be taken promptly.
The
exam dates are as follows:
FIRST
EXAMINATION: Monday,
September 27, 2004
SECOND
EXAMINATION: Friday, October 29, 2004
FINAL
EXAMINATION: Friday,
December 17, 2004, from 9-10:50
a.m.
3. HOMEWORK FOR THE CLASS
a.
HOMEWORK --There will be regular homework assignments out of the Corbett
text. While individual homework
assignments do not weigh heavily on the overall grade, they do perform the
important function of familiarizing you with the material that will ultimately
show up on quizzes and exams. As such,
it is important for you to do these in a timely fashion. Homework assignments will be due on each
WEDNESDAY. Late homework assignments
will be penalized 5% of the points each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that it
is late to be fair to all students.
Thus, an assignment turned in on Friday will start at a 95.0%, on Monday
at a 90%, etc. Turning in homework
assignments late, however, is not recommended because the homework usually
serves the function of improving students’ grades and if it is turned in late,
that will not happen. It is also
important that each student complete his/her own work on these homework
assignments. The homework assignments
give you a chance to work with the material, when the point value for each
question is minimal and are good preparation for the exam questions that will
inevitably come your way.
b.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS -- Each of these assignments is fairly short, but should
give you a chance to use the material that you have learned. The
goal of these assignments is to show that you have done the readings and can
apply the terminology of those readings to a given assignment. You should
know that each of these assignments requires about 2-3 pages of writing
each. All assignments are due the class
period on the date assigned. Late
assignments will be penalized 5% points for every MWF late as described above. The two essays are weighted the most in the
20% of your total grade devoted to these assignments, with the spreadsheet
weighted the least since it requires less work.
1.
ANALYSIS OF AN INTERNET SEARCH -- This essay is due: Monday, October 4, 2004.
Pick
a political science topic (see me if you need suggestions). Use four different
search engines on the Internet and examine the top 5 items that come up for
each search engine (20 in all if you are doing your math correctly). Make sure that you include Google as one of
your search engines. In an essay of 2-3
typed pages, double spaced with standard margins, describe the following
somewhere:
What
does JJ&R have to say about conducting an Internet search? Which of their suggestions were most
useful? The least useful? Would you make any suggestions to improve the
guidance that they give?
Carefully
describe, using the information provided in JJ&R, how you selected the
words for your topic. Using the
terminology from some of the earlier chapters/notes should help here.
What
were the most common items? What were
the least common? What kinds of
information were found in the items?
Which
search engine performed the best in your view? Which engine performed the
worst? Why? In order to make this determination, you
should develop a list of three (or more) specific criteria, and judge each
search engine according to that criterion.
You should define each of your criteria very carefully in your paper. Using some of the criteria discussed in class
like validity and reliability correctly and then looking at the readings might
help you here.
You
should consider using a chart to present your results. Remember:
your professor likes charts and this is an information management class.
What
do you think other students should know before they conduct an Internet search
for a class research paper?
2.
SPREADSHEET EXERCISE -- Create a spreadsheet in Excel. Your spreadsheet should contain the following
items:
Create
a list of 15 students’ names
Create
at least 5 different types of grades for those students -- make sure to give
yourself a high score! -- one of those grades should be an average of three
different quiz grades. Show the three
quiz grades and then use an average function to show the average. That should thus create 4 columns for that
grade.
Make
sure that for one of those grades, you add a number to it -- you were generous
and gave a curve -- that creates an additional column too.
Calculate
a final grade. To get your final grade,
you should give percentage weights to each type of grade. They CANNOT be the same. All 5 must be different percentages and
obviously (I hope) must add up to 100%.
Your final grades should be between 0 and 100.
Show
a column for the letter grade that you would give each student.
Using
the “show formulas” function in Excel, print out a copy of your spreadsheet
with the formulas.
Give
me your average % grade, and use the computer to compute a chart of your grade
distribution -- it can be pie, bar, etc. -- in creating this chart, you want to
make sure that you do two things: 1)
pick the type of chart that makes the most sense (see JJ&R on picking
charts or class notes); 2) make sure that you use the right column for picking
the grade distribution – i.e. think about how a professor would show the grade
distribution on his/her door.
Print
out your grade sheet and your grade distribution chart. Thus, you should turn in your grade sheet,
your grade distribution chart, and a spreadsheet with the “show formulas”
function indicated.
Your
grade will be based on how well you follow the above instructions, and the look
of your grade sheet (use any creativity you can muster). This assignment is DUE the Wednesday after we
complete the Spreadsheet week and thus, the date will be announced in class.
3.
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS -- Go through issues from the last 6 years of one of the
following journals: American Political
Science Review, American Journal of
Political Science, Legislative
Studies Quarterly, or The Journal of
Politics and find one article dealing with some topic of interest to you.
Make certain that the article is from one of these journals and that it is an
empirical study. If you are not sure if
it is an empirical study, ASK ME!
Generally speaking, if it looks “awful,” it is probably an empirical
study. Use your answers to the following questions below to create a coherent
essay:
What
is the author(s)’ research question? i.e. what are they trying to explain?
What
are the central concepts of their study?
How do they define those concepts?
How
do they operationalize their concepts?
What
are their hypotheses?
Notice that these first four questions
allow you the opportunity to use some of the terminology and information found
in the readings, particularly the early chapters of JJ&R. Take advantage of it!
What
method do they use to test their hypotheses? (i.e. how did they collect their
data?) Can you relate anything of things
that the authors did to what we have discussed in class so far about statistics
and/or what is found in the readings?
What
conclusions do they draw? i.e. How do
they answer their research questions and how do they add to the understanding
of political science as we know it?
The
better answers will answer all of the relevant questions, but will also do a fairly consistent job of
relating the article to the readings/material that we have already learned in
class. That’s why this assignment is
done at the end of the semester.
Your
essays should be typed, 2-3 pages in length, with standard fonts and
margins. It should be in the form of a
single coherent essay, rather than a series of short answers to each of the
above questions. You MUST include a copy of the article with your paper. Plagiarism will not be tolerated: use your
OWN words and use proper citations when you use the authors’ words. If including a direct quote, you should make
sure that you have two quote marks, and a parenthetical citation, i.e.
(Corbett, p. 10). One without the other
is plagiarism, and omitting them both is of course plagiarism.
This essay is due: Friday, November 19,
2004, in class.
4. OFFICE HOURS:
My office hours are listed on the front page of this syllabus. Please feel free to use my office hours if
you have questions about the class itself, the readings, the exams, or the
written assignments. If you have
questions, it will be up to you to
take the initiative to meet with me in my office hours. You can also use my office hours just to come
in and introduce yourself. If my office
hours are not convenient, I am willing to make other arrangements so just stop
by during my office hours or after class and ask.
5. GRADING:
Let's look at how your final grades for the course will be calculated. Your
final grades for the course will be calculated in the following manner: 90% and
above=A, 80% and above=B, and so forth.
I will use the following percentages to calculate grades:
First
examination 15%
Second
examination 20%
Final
examination 20%
Participation 5%
Microcase Homework 20%
Assignments 20%
Students
who have taken this class before often have been worried about their
grades. I can tell you up front that
almost all of my students will be able to get As, Bs, or Cs in this class by
the end of the semester so long as they do the following: 1) attend almost all classes; 2) do all
assignments and complete most of them on time; 3) take both exams and put in a
good effort. So far, the only students
with Ds or Fs are students who have somehow failed to do 1, 2, and/or 3. The homework is important and is there for
several reasons. It gives students a
chance to practice the material, that same material will show up on the exams,
including identical Microcase questions, and students tend to do very well on
the homework, giving them a chance to improve their grades (usually the exam
grades).
6. OUTSIDE WORK AND CHEATING --
The Dean’s office requires that these statements be included on all syllabi.
A.
OUTSIDE WORK: Based upon the Oklahoma Regents’ Statement on Course Workload and
Homework [OSRHE II‑2‑34], a college student should expect to spend
3 hours, on average, on outside work for each hour spent in class. The message the OK Regents are trying to communicate
is that if you have a full time job (30‑40 hours) you should not
simultaneously expect to maintain a full‑time academic schedule (15
hours). If you expect to do well, expect
to put in the time!
B.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: Cheating is unacceptable conduct and will result in an
automatic grade of "F" for the course, and be reported to Academic
Affairs. Students are required to do all of the work for this class on their
own. Copying answers to exercises or examinations from anyone constitutes
cheating. Allowing another student to copy one's answers will be treated as
cheating. A student may discuss exercises and case briefs with others before
preparing his or her own answers, but the answers must be each student's own
work product. Consulting with the instructor about any assignment does not
constitute cheating, and is encouraged.
7. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If
you have special circumstances that I should know about, please let me know as
soon as you can. If you are an athlete,
etc., who will travel, let me know. The
University of Central Oklahoma complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Students with
disabilities who need special accommodations must contact the assistant
director of Disability Support Services, Kim Fields, in Room 309 of the Nigh
University Center, at 974-2549. If you
become ill during the course of the semester and need to miss some classes,
please inform me as soon as you can so we can work out a schedule for you
to complete the assignments. Also, you might have difficulty taking certain
kinds of exams. If any of these
circumstances or others apply to you, please see me and we can make the
necessary arrangements.
Required Reading -- The
readings for this class are not long, but ALL are required. This is NOT a class where you only do a
portion of the reading.
Corbett,
Michael, Research Methods in Political Science, Fifth Edition (make sure
to get only this edition!), Microcase Corporation (2003). Notice the acknowledgements! DO NOT
BUY THIS BOOK USED!
Johnson,
Janet, Joslyn, Richard, and Reynolds, Political Science Research Methods,
2004, Congressional Quarterly Press. DO
NOT BUY THIS BOOK USED!
COPY
PACKET -- It is also strongly recommended that you purchase the copy packet
available for this course as described in class. This copy packet will have the
information provided in class during the second half of the semester.