IREn5004 Introduction to research design and analysis

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2024

The course is not taught in Autumn 2024

Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
Zuzana Ringlerová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Zuzana Ringlerová, Ph.D.
Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Olga Cídlová, DiS.
Supplier department: Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! MVZ238 Introduction to Pol. Analysis
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/15, only registered: 0/15
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
By the end of this course, you should be able to do the following:
• Understand basic research-design concepts such as variable, hypothesis, causality etc.
• Explain how political scientists generate knowledge, including discussion of pros and cons of different research designs.
• Manage data in Stata statistical software, quantitatively analyze data and interpret the analysis.
• Write a proposal of a research design for their own research project.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to do the following:
• Understand basic research-design concepts such as variable, hypothesis, causality etc.
• Explain how political scientists generate knowledge, including discussion of pros and cons of different research designs.
• Manage data in Stata statistical software, quantitatively analyze data and interpret the analysis.
• Write a proposal of a research design for their own research project.
Syllabus
  • Course description
  • Why do some some political regimes change peacefully and others turn into into a civil war? How do we explain terrorist attacks? Why do some people trust their government and others don't? These are only some of the many important questions studied by political scientists. In this course, students learn about how political scientists study the political world. Students learn the basics of research design and they learn how to write their own project proposal. In addition, the course puts a great emphasis on learning practical data-analysis skills. Such skills are valuable in students' professional development as well as in academic work (term papers or master theses).
  • In the theoretical part of the course, students learn what causal relationships are and what research designs scientists use to establish causal relationships. In the practical part, learn how to write their own research design and they acquire basic data-analysis skills such as describing variables in tables and graphs, transforming variables, making comparisons, and performing a multivariate analysis.
  • Course outline:
  • Week 1: Introduction
  • Week 2: Seeing the world as a political scientist: What does it mean?
  • Week 3: Establishing causal relationships. How do we know that there is a causal relationship?
  • Week 4: Research design. What are the strategies to investigate causal relationships?
  • Learning practical skills: Introduction to Stata
  • Week 5: Measurement. How do we measure concepts of interest?
  • Developing analytical skills: Descriptive statistics
  • Week 6: Learning practical skills: Transforming variables and labeling variables.
  • Week 7: Midterm exam
  • Week 8: Learning practical skills: Making comparisons.
  • Week 9: Learning practical skills: Making controlled comparisons.
  • Week 10: Learning about the population from a sample: Statistical inference.
  • Learning practical skills: Comparison of means.
  • Week 11: Learning practical skills: Correlation
  • Week 12: Linear regression
  • Week 13: Learning practical skills: Linear regression.
Literature
  • James H. Pollock III. 2011. A Stata Companion to Political Analysis Washington DC: CQ Press.

    Kellstedt, Paul M. and Guy D. Whitten. 2009. The Fundamentals of Political Science Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Teaching methods
In this course, students will be learning new knowledge and skills in multiple ways:
• Students will learn theoretical concepts from lectures and from the assigned readings.
• Students will learn data-analysis skills in seminars.
• Learning of the data-analysis skills will be reinforced by working on homework assignments. • Students will apply their knowledge and skills in writing their own research proposal.
Assessment methods
Final grade has the following components:
Participation 10%
Homework assignments 35%
Midterm and final exams 35%
Research proposal 20%
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
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