Бакалавриат
2024/2025
Научно-исследовательский семинар "Подготовка и написание выпускной квалификационной работы"
Статус:
Курс обязательный (Международная программа «Международные отношения и глобальные исследования»)
Направление:
41.03.05. Международные отношения
Кто читает:
Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики
Где читается:
Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики
Когда читается:
4-й курс, 1-3 модуль
Формат изучения:
без онлайн-курса
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
36
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This research seminar is set to help students in their work on individual research projects leading to BA thesis, by refreshing knowledge and improving skills needed for selecting adequate research strategy and developing appropriate research design. During the research seminar, students will be able to practice specific methods fitting their research aims/questions by discussing their peculiarities and developing their own research projects. Moreover, the research seminar will consider machine learning techniques that could be used for academic research on key issues in international relations and public policy, including decision trees, gradient boosting, neural networks, etc. The course will also offer ready-made AI tools, developed using machine learning methods and neural networks, to collect and analyse relevant literature.
Learning Objectives
- The primary goal is to teach students how to build research for BA graduate thesis, using appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods. The course also will help students to become critical and conscious consumers of social and political science evidence and research that they are exposed to. The discipline will also serve as a preparatory platform for majority of BA thesis components: literature review, methodology section, research question, hypotheses, research relevance, topic contextualization, bibliography.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Presentation of the research proposal that covers title, relevance, research question(s), hypotheses (if relevant), methodlogy details and possible shortcomings. Addressing QA session; The student learns from practice about defense procedures.
- Presentation of the research proposal that covers title, relevance, research question(s), hypotheses (if relevant), methodlogy details and possible shortcomings. Addressing QA session; The student learns from practice about defense procedures.
- Presentation of the research proposal that covers title, relevance, research question(s), hypotheses (if relevant), methodlogy details and possible shortcomings. Addressing QA session; The student learns from practice about defense procedures
- Learning about formal aspects of defense procedures
- Refreshing and polishing the skills of RQ designing. The student would be able to formulate a RQ that meets necessary criteria.
- Learning about time management techniques in the context of writing a BA thesis. Learning about techniques to address "writers block"
- Learning how to design and how to improve literature reviews for researc papers
- Learning about existing qualitative methods and how they can be applied to BA thesis
- Learning and practicing process-tracing method
- Learning about existing shortcomings and imperfections of submitted literature reviews
- Designing, planning, drafting of the respective section
- Defining differences between inferential and descriptive statistics Applying statistics-based approaches Classify/taxonimize and interpret obtained data
- Elaborating and drafing questtionnaires Formulating questions for surveys Arguing about strong and weak sides of sampling techniques
- Conducting experiments based on big n Conducting experiments based on small n Defining experiment strategy based on existing conditions and available sources
- hypothesizing defining variable selecting inferential statistics techniques describing existing conditions and shortcomings
- Updating proposals based on feedbacks
- Obtaining information on ethical boundaries of the research Developing arguments of what can qualify as plagiarism and data fabrication
- Intorductory information aquisition
- Passing exam based on course materials
Course Contents
- Module 1. Week 1. Introduction
- Module 1. Week 2: Re-capping and Feedbacking
- Module 1. Week 3: Methodology and Research strategy, Planning your time management
- Module 1. Week 4: Figuring out relevance of your study and designing your literature review
- Module 1. Week 5: Qualitative methods: discursive methods
- Module 1. Week 6. Process-tracing
- Module 1. Week 9. Oral exam.
- Module 2. Week 1: Introduction of the module 2 and feedbacking on literature reviews
- Module 2. Week 2. Methodology section
- Module 2. Week 3. Descriptive vs Inferential statistics for your paper
- Module 2. Week 4: Quantitative: surveys and sampling
- Module 2. Week 5: Experiments with big and small n’s
- Module 2. Week 6: Inferential statistics, variables, hypotheses and AI-powered software tools
- Module 2. Week 9. Oral exam
- Module 3. Week 1. Introduction and feebacks
- Module 3. Week 2. Workshop on ethics and plagiarism in research
- Introducing BA defense procedures
- Final project presentations I
- Final project presentations II
- Module 3. Week 5. Final project presentations III
- Module 3. Week 10. Oral exam.
Assessment Elements
- attendanceattendance
- Literature reviewLiterature reviews / Reading reflections For the final task of the module 1 a student will write reflections on literature of your choice (at least two items). A student academic ACADEMIC sources (e.g., books, book chapters, peer-reviewed articles) and describe them, answering the following and related questions: • What problem/ issue does the article examine? • To what discipline or discipline (e.g. history, gender studies, area studies, sociology, international relations) does the article refer? • How does the author formulate this problem/issue? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established? • What cases does the article focus on? • What are the principal arguments of the article? • What are the key concepts? Are they clearly defined? • What is the author’s research orientation (e.g., interpretive, quantitative, critical, combination)? • What theory does the article propose? How convincingly is evidence provided for the theory? • What methods does the author employ? • What are strengths and limitations of the employed method? Up to 500 words per one chosen research item (not including references) No more than 600 words total Make sure you cite/refer to sources correctly, following APA. Even if you use only one source per submission there should be “References” section after the text. So, each input should have at least two sections: 1) Main body, 2) References. What will be judged: • Clarity of text • Fullness of reflections • Critical approach towards sources • Selection of sources • Correctness of referencing (both in-text and in references section) Deadlines WEEK 8, WEDNESDAY, 23:00. DETAILED DATE AND METHOD OF SUBMISSION WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER
- methodology-oriented research proposalDuring this course, you must a research proposal for the module 2 as a final task. The purpose of this assignment: ● to formulate a causal question; ● to collect relevant materials to answer it; ● to demonstrate that you understand what you have read; ● to evaluate the ideas and evidence presented in the sources; ● to articulate your own reactions/reflections. Requirements: ● Include an original title. ● Present your research question and construct a hypothesis (if relevant). ● Situate your topic and research question(s) in the literature. How does your research relate to the debates in the field? How do your research relate to other major works on the subject: what is the degree of overlap in the questions they address? Where do they agree with each other? Where do they differ? ● This is a methodology-oriented research proposal so make sure you include detailed information on research methods, data collection procedures, data profile, shortcomings. ● You must use a minimum of ten academic sources for the research proposal. ● Pay attention to the clear organization of your ideas. Ensure that you present your thesis statement in the introduction. In the body of the paper, develop your argument, supporting it with evidence. In conclusion, summarize your findings. The paper should be typed, double spaced with 12-pt font, in Arial or Times New Roman. Please remember to include page numbers. Each 2.000-2.500 (with footnotes and references). References: ● The proposals should be formatted in APA Maximum that can be collected – 30%
- Final presentationFinal Presentation Prepare a six-minute presentation of your research. Presentations should provide a summary that will encourage the audience to want to learn more about your topic and engage your audience in a dialog about your research. Presentations must NOT exceed six minutes and will Final grade for the presentation and paper will be based on overall presentation. The final grade for the presentation will be given by the jury (80%) and the instructor (20%). E.g. if the Jury gives 8 and the instructor gives 5, the final exam grade will be calculated as following: (Grade by Jury × 80% + Grade by Instructor × 20% )/2 (8 × 80% + 5 × 20% )/2 = 6,4+1=7,4 (equals 7 out of 10 or 21% out of 30% that are possible to collect for this element) Maximum for the presentation is 30%. Deductions occur: When factual mistakes are made (e.g. saying or writing something like “The handover of Hong Kong happened in 1999”. It is wrong, it happened in 1997); When structure of presentation and paper is illogical, visualizations are poor (e.g., white font 12 on the yellow background) or there are typos. When unsupported generalizations are made (e.g. If a student says “All Singaporeans are rich”, if we find an evidence of poverty in Singapore and we find at least one poor Singaporean it proves that student is wrong); Too much reading during presentation is not okay. It is okay to use notes and read for example to quote something correctly through or to resurrect something from your memory; When timing is violated (too short or too long presentation); When wordcount is violated; When a student cannot convey a message or articulate properly the ideas; When questions during QA are unanswered or unanswered unsatisfactory; Unnecessary switch to Russian When necessary components of presentation were not covered (e.g., the research question was not introduced) When necessary component of paper was not included (e.g., missing research question, or methodology section).
- Participation
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 1st moduleAttendance – 5% Participation in in-class activities and discussions - 25% Module final task submission (Literature review) - 30% Oral exam - 40%
- 2024/2025 3rd moduleAttendance – 5% Participation in in-class activities and discussions - 25% Module final task submission (Presentation) - 30%* Oral exam - 40%*
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Baker, P., & Ellece, S. (2011). Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. New York, N.Y.: Continuum. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=350269
- Belcher, W. L. (DE-588)103278413X, (DE-627)739934139, (DE-576)380287447, aut. (2009). Writing your journal article in 12 weeks a guide to academic publishing success Wendy Laura Belcher.
- Cambridge handbook of experimental political science ed. by James N. Druckman; Donald P. Greene; James H. Kuklinski; Arthur Lupia. (2011).
- Johnstone, B. (2017). Discourse Analysis (Vol. Third edition). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1647576
- Little, T. D. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Quantitative Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=603942
- Mark Israel, & Iain Hay. (2006). Research Ethics for Social Scientists. SAGE Publications Ltd.
- Nachmias, C., & Leon-Guerrero, A. (2000). Social Statistics for a Diverse Society: Vol. 2nd ed. Sage Publications, Inc.
- Peters, B. G. (2013). Strategies for Comparative Research in Political Science. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1522713
- Silverman, D. (DE-588)141743867, (DE-627)631177094, (DE-576)163079072, aut. (2010). Doing qualitative research a practical handbook David Silverman.
- Анализ социологических данных : методология, дескриптивная статистика, изучение связей между номинальными признаками : учеб.пособие для вузов, Толстова, Ю. Н., 2000
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Advanced research methods, Mey de, L., 2013