history of political science traditional historical, legalism, philosophy, descriptive modern –...
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History of Political Science
Traditional Historical, Legalism, Philosophy,
Descriptive
Modern – “Behavioralism” Political science as “science” Facilitated by development of
technology, computers
Card Reader (1960’s-70’s)
Tape Unit (1960’s-70’s)
Other “Revolutions” in Political Science
Post-behavioral Revolution (late 1960s)
Perestroika Movement
Is Political Science Arcane?
Science
Effort to understand the world (explain various phenomena) by systematically examining causal relationships among variables
Scientific explanation must have both logical and empirical support
Who Uses Science?
Natural sciences – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, etc.
Social sciences – Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Criminology, Anthropology, Political Science
The Business of Social Research
Where – universities (teaching vs. research universities), research institutes, government
Who – people with Ph.D.’s (with help from graduate students at universities)
Outlets for research – conferences, journals, books
The Business of Social Research
Grants NSF Research Foundations
Why Do Research?
To get paid! Because you like it
Types of Academic Departments
Ph.D. Granting Departments 6-year tenure clock for assistant professors >100 departments in the U.S. 2-2 teaching load is the norm All require significant research output to get
tenure 6-9 refereed journal articles Book = 3-5 articles Publications must be in respected publication
outlets
Types of Academic Departments
M.A. Granting Departments 5-6 year tenure clock for assistant
professors > 2-2 teaching load is the norm All require some research output to get
tenure
Types of Academic Departments
B.A. Granting Departments (LAC’s) 5-6 year tenure clock for assistant
professors 4-4 teaching load is the norm Many (if not most?) require some
research output to get tenure
PS Journals
Discipline-wide: American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science
Many specialized journals for different fields
Subfields in Political Science American Politics
Political Institutions Behavior
Comparative Politics Regional specialists
International Relations IPE International Conflict/Security Etc.
Political Theory Public Administration Public Policy
Specialized PS Journals
International Relations World Politics (also comparative politics) International Organization International Studies Quarterly Journal of Conflict Resolution
Specialized PS Journals
Comparative Politics World Politics (also IR) Comparative Politics Comparative Political Studies Many more (some are region specific)
Ranking PS Journals
Garand and Giles 2003 Representative sample of political
scientists Subjective evaluations Journal rankings vary by subfield Journal rankings vary by methodological
orientation
What Separates Top Journals from the Rest?
The peer-review process (for all peer-reviewed journals)
1. Author sends article to journal editor2. Editor sends anonymous copy of manuscript to 3
reviewers (other political scientists)3. Editor makes a decision and informs the author
(and sends the three anonymous reviews to author). Possibilities are: Accept Revise and Resubmit
Reviewed again by same reviewers, possibly others Reject
How to be successful in graduate school
This is your career – start treating it like one! Treat graduate school like a full time job
Join the APSA – now! Start reading job ads – now! Start browsing journals and reading the
ones that interest you Start going to conferences Read the PSJR blog