IPOL2170 70/71: Scope & Methods, Spring 2025 Version Jan.3.

2025

IPOL2170: Scope & Methods, Spring 2025

Gabor Scheiring, Georgetown University Qatar

Where: 0A13
When: Jan 5th – Apr 28th, Spring break: Feb 23rd – 27th; Eid break: Mar 30th – Apr 3rd
Monday, 8.30 am – 9.45 am: Lecture, sessions 70 & 71 combined
Wednesday, 8.30 am – 9.45 am: Seminar, Session 70
Wednesday, 10.00 am – 11.15 am: Seminar, Session 71
Office: 0D11
Office Hours: A) Drop by my office Mondays 1 pm – 2 pm and Wednesdays: 4 pm – 5 pm.
B) Meet outside office hours online or in my office; just email me beforehand.
Email: [email protected]
Web: gaborscheiring.com
X: /gscheiring
Bluesky /gscheiring.bsky.social
LinkedIn /gscheiring

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Scope & Methods is an essential introduction to the “how” of social science research, laying the
foundation for understanding the systematic study of politics. While it may not have the allure of
some electives at first glance, this course offers something invaluable: the skills to distinguish facts
from impressions and truths from falsehoods — critical tools both in academia and real life.
Research skills are more than just a set of techniques. They are among the most transferable
abilities, highly valued in the job market, and empower you in everyday decision-making.
This course is designed to help you appreciate the process of social scientific inquiry. You’ll
explore the building blocks of research design, learning how to approach the world as a researcher
by breaking down complex questions into clear, actionable steps. Hands-on work will familiarize
you with the empirical research process and develop a deeper understanding of quantitative and
qualitative research methods.
We’ll engage with real-world examples from published academic studies to illustrate how these
concepts are applied in practice. You’ll have the opportunity to work through practical
assignments, collaborate with your peers, and develop your own research proposal step by step.
Beyond mastering research techniques, this course will challenge you to embrace curiosity, reflect
on what you know (and don’t know), and learn how to grow from setbacks.
By the end of the course, students will
 Recognize the value of social research in improving societies and tackling global problems.
 Understand the key philosophical assumptions that shape social research.
 Locate and navigate relevant academic literature effectively.
 Critically evaluate the research design of scholarly work.
 Design a well-structured research proposal.
 Carry out independent research.

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ASSESSMENT
Quizzes (40 points)
There will be three reading quizzes focusing exclusively on the readings from the assigned book.
Two paper-based quizzes, each worth 10 points, take place at the end of the two modules (class 14
and class 28). These quizzes will cover the assigned readings up to and including the week of the
quiz within that module. No laptops or phones are allowed. We will discuss and review the results
in class. These two low-stakes quizzes will prepare you for the final quiz, worth 20 points, that
will be held during the exam period. The final quiz will cover the readings of both modules, with
similar, though not necessarily the same, questions as in the first two quizzes. The questions in all
three quizzes will cover the main concepts and methods discussed in the book. Each quiz will
consist of true/false and multiple-choice questions. There will always be only one correct answer,
which might include “none of the above” or “all of the above.”

Attendance (30 points)

This is a required course, so you are expected to be present at all lectures and seminars, including
the first week. Participation is worth up to 30 points and is based on two components: attendance
and activity. We take attendance both on Mondays and Wednesdays.
 Attendance (25 points): You will receive 1 point for each class you attend, with a maximum
of 25 points. Only 25 of the 28 classes are scored, allowing you to miss three classes
without penalty. If you are more than 5 minutes late or leave the room for more than 5
minutes (except for medical reasons), you will lose half a point.
 Activity (5 points): You gain an additional 5 points by completing five simple home
assignments throughout the course. I will announce these assignments as the course
progresses, and you can complete them on Canvas.
If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to catch up on the material. You can miss three classes
without notifying me. After that, missing class without notification will result in a 1-point
deduction. Emergencies do happen—you might get sick, or you might get an invitation to a once-
in-a-lifetime event abroad. If that happens, email me, ideally before class. If you miss more than
three classes without legitimate medical, travel, or personal reasons, I reserve the right to fail you
from the course.

Research proposal (30 points)

Throughout the course, you will develop a research proposal for a project comparable to a
standalone research article or an undergraduate thesis. Your research proposal should address a
contemporary puzzle in international relations or comparative politics that can be investigated
within the scope of an undergraduate thesis. Good research questions often emerge from
unexpected patterns, surprising relationships, or apparent contradictions in political phenomena.
For example: “Why do some authoritarian regimes provide extensive welfare while others do
not?”, “What explains popular support for climate change mitigating measures in Africa?”, or
“Why did democratization reverse into democratic backsliding in Tunisia?” Notice how these
questions focus on explaining variation or understanding causal relationships rather than just
describing phenomena.
Thinking in terms of causal processes is crucial for good social research. Your research proposal
should address a causal question, typically in a “What explains variation in X?” or “Why does X

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lead to Y?” format. For example, a description of a social movement or the discourse analysis of
a political leader’s foreign policy statements are not causal questions. You must move beyond the
question of what and analyze the why and how. Your research should be feasible within reasonable
constraints. You should be able to access the necessary data through public sources, academic
databases, or achievable fieldwork, also considering time and resource constraints.
Breaking up this two-month assignment into five different milestones will be helpful. You will
upload a report for each step before the due date listed in the course schedule. The first four reports
will not be evaluated for content; you will receive the points indicated for submitting them on time
and 0 points if you miss the deadline. The final research proposal, due on May 1st, combines the
four reports into a coherent document. The final proposal is worth 20 points and will be evaluated
based on its content. We will discuss each step in five sessions, including reviewing your
experience with the process at the end. Be prepared to talk in detail about your workflow during
the class discussions. Discussing the steps will allow the whole class to learn the best practices.
Have you found an easy way to identify articles? Did you come across a particularly powerful data
source? Did you engineer a particularly good combo of A.I. prompts? Please share with us what
you did, how you did it, what worked and what didn’t work.

Milestone 1. Research aims (class 8): 400 words, 2pts

 Formulate a topic statement clearly identifying the field and subfield
 Formulate a causally oriented research question
 Cite 2-3 recent news articles (less than 6 months old) showing broad relevance
 Explain your project’s theoretical or scholarly relevance for IR or CPS
Milestone 2. Academic context (class 16): 800 words, 4pts
 Identify two or more competing theoretical positions or causal arguments
 Review 6-8 peer-reviewed journal articles published in the last 15 years
 Identify a research gap (what we don’t yet know) explicitly connected to the literature
 Identify your original argument that addresses the identified gap (your contribution)
Milestone 3. Research design (class 20): 400 words, 2pts
 State and justify your case selection criteria: what are your units of analysis and why
 Define your dependent and independent variables or concepts
 Name your data sources
 Explain your analytical method and show how it allows you to answer your question
Milestone 4. Ethical and practical implications (class 24): 400 words, 2pts
 Ethical considerations: ethics compliance and participant protection (if applicable)
 Practical implications (e.g., for policy or political practice), stakeholders (beneficiaries)
 Realistic timeline with major research phases
 Potential research challenges and how you mitigate them
Milestone 5. Final proposal (Apr 28th): 2000 words, 20pts. Cover all the points above, plus:
 Defend your explanation against alternative explanations
 Clearly state your hypotheses or expectations and link them to your theory
 Add a research design diagram showing the relationship between concepts/variables
 Discuss how your findings might contribute to theory development

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Grading
Each assignment is graded on a point scale (X points out of 100). At the end of the course, I use
the following scale to transform point scores into letter grades (using rounding if needed):

A = 100-93% (Excellent) C+ = 75-71

A- = 92-89 C = 70-66 (Adequate)
B+ = 88-85 C- = 65-61
B = 84-81 (Good) D+ = 60-56
B- = 80-76 D = 55-51 (Minimum Passing)

POLICIES

Communication
My preferred mode of communication is email. If you have a great idea, email me. If you have any
questions, email me. If you miss a class, email me. I am happy to have a chat in the corridor or in
the classroom, but anything that I should remember needs to be in my inbox. It’s your
responsibility to make sure that happens. If you speak to me after class about your research idea
or upcoming surgery and don’t send me an email, I will forget it. Don’t send me a message on
Canvas. I rarely check my LinkedIn account. Email is your—and my—friend.

Integrity
Georgetown University is an Honor Code school for undergraduates. It might make sense to re-
read the Georgetown Qatar Honor System, which lays out policies and practices related to
academic integrity. In addition to what is written there, here are my policies.
This class is for you. There are very few opportunities in life when you can concentrate on a single
topic and develop your related knowledge with a systematic effort. This class is a space for you to
grow. This class is not for me or the university. You can choose to get through with as little effort
as possible. Alternatively, you can decide to make the best use of the class for your own benefit. I
am here to accompany you on your academic journey and help you develop as a researcher and
writer. My approach depends on your partnership, goodwill, sense of fairness, honorable character,
and your fundamental preference for learning instead of cheating. Having said that, severe
violations of the course policy will be treated according to the Georgetown Honor System.

Civil discourse
Occasionally, some of the topics we discuss might appear sensitive. You might disagree with each
other. You might encounter arguments that challenge you. It is essential to respect the learning
experience of others in the classroom. In a debate, wait for others to finish; do not interrupt.
Express your disagreement respectfully, and never attack the personal integrity of others.

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A.I.
Learning to use A.I. responsibly, ethically, and cleverly is vital today. Therefore, you may use
generative A.I. programs, such as Chat GPT or Claude, to help generate ideas, brainstorm, get
suggestions for outlines, look up basic information, get tips for software, sources of data, etc.
However, if you haven’t done so already, you will quickly learn that these programs tend to make
up incorrect facts and fake citations, often producing superficial, inaccurate, incomplete, unethical,
or otherwise problematic material. You will be responsible for any inappropriate content you
present. As per Georgetown’s policy, using A.I.-generated text and representing it as your own
work constitutes a violation of academic integrity. If you didn’t generate the words yourself, say
so by quoting and citing the A.I. source; if you generated the words but not the content and ideas,
say so by citing the A.I. source.

Wellness, Accommodations, Non-Discrimination & Title IX

If you have any questions or concerns related to your physical and mental wellness, I encourage
you to contact the Student Wellness & Counseling Center (SWCC). If you have any questions
concerning special needs, you can contact the Office of Academic Services. I am dedicated to
preserving a classroom and university environment where students can contribute and learn
without discrimination, harassment, or sexual misconduct. If you feel you have experienced an
incident of sexual misconduct, please reach out to any of the Title IX coordinators. Or, if you wish
to speak confidentially with an employee who does not have this reporting responsibility, please
get in touch with a member of the SWCC.

GENERAL READING

Assigned:
Halperin, Sandra and Heath, Oliver (2020), Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills
(Oxford: Oxford University Press). Below, I refer to the book as H&H.

There is no other assigned reading. I will show you examples. We will cover the methodology and
design of highly influential research articles, but you only need to read the H&H book. One book,
broken down into manageable readings for each week. Note that you are expected to read the
readings before the class they are assigned for, not just for the quizzes; otherwise, you will not be
able to actively take part in class discussions, which will be reflected in your attendance points.

Additional readings, if you want further clarity on the basics of research design and methods:
 Babbie, Earl (2021), The practice of social research, 15th Edition (Boston: Cengage
Learning)
 Clark, Tom, Liam Foster, Luke Sloan and Alan Bryman (2021), Bryman’s Social Research
Methods, 6th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
 Johnson, Janet Buttolph, H.T. Reynolds and Jason D. Mycoff (2020), Political Science
Research Methods, 9th Edition (London: Sage)

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COURSE SCHEDULE

PART I. FROM INTUITION TO DATA

Week 1. Fundamentals
Class 1 Jan 6. Lecture: What is this Course?
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 1. Political Research

Class 2 Jan 8. Seminar

Why do you want to learn more about the world? How does empirical research differ from other
forms of knowledge production?

Week 2. How do we know that we know?

Class 3 Jan 13. Lecture: Forms of Knowledge
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 2.

Class 4 Jan 15. Seminar

In-class discussion: The structure of a social science research article.
In-class assignment 1: Analyzing the three faces of power debate from the perspective of
ontology, epistemology, and methodology.
In-class assignment 2: Analyze the structure of a published political research paper.

Week 3. Contesting what we know

Class 5 Jan 20. Lecture: Objectivity and Values
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 3.

Class 6 Jan 22. Seminar

In-class assignment: Analyze an article published in The Conversation reporting results from
social science research as well as the original piece of research on which the article was based.
Identify a) the topic’s sociopolitical relevance, b) the research question, c) the gap, d) the data
source, e) the analytical method, f) the main findings. We will discuss what you find in class.
In-class discussion: Explore the key ingredients of a successful research proposal.

Week 4. From intuition to question

Class 7 Jan 27. Lecture: How to Find and Formulate Research Questions
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 4.

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Class 8 Jan 29. Seminar: Milestone 1

Pre-class assignment: Upload the first research proposal report before the class begins.
In-class assignment: Present and discuss the report in small groups. Report back what you
learned from each other.
In-class discussion: Finding and formulating research questions.

Week 5. From question to answer

Class 9 Feb 3. Lecture: Theories and How to Apply Them
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 5.

Class 10 Feb 5. Seminar

In-class discussion: The hallmarks of good theoretical explanations in empirical research.
In-class discussion: The nots and bolts of quick and efficient literature review — we discuss
insights from my latest research project.
In-class assignment: Using Google Scholar and Google Search, identify three of the most
relevant articles within your research topic. Identify a) the number of citations, b) the journal’s
WoS impact factor, c) the journal’s Scimago quartile ranking, and d) the institutional affiliation
of the author(s). We will discuss what you find in class.

Week 6. Finding the right tool for your problem

Class 11 Feb 10. Lecture: Research Design
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 6.

Class 12 Feb 12. Seminar

In-class assignment: Using Google Scholar, identify a relevant article within your research
topic published in one of the following journals: World Politics, Comparative Political Studies,
American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, International Studies
Quarterly. Identify a) the research question, b) the gap in the literature, and c) the theoretical
framework, d) the unit of analysis, e) the data source, f) the analytical approach, g) the main
findings. We will discuss what you find in class.
In-class discussion: The pitfalls of finding topics and questions for your preferred method.

Week 7. Turning reality into data

Class 13 Feb 17. Lecture: What is Data?
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 7.

Class 14 Feb 19. Seminar: Quiz #1 and recap

Wrap-up, Q&A

***Spring Break***

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PART II. RESEARCH IN PRACTICE

Week 8. The key to causality

Class 15 Mar 3. Lecture: Experiments and quasi-experiments
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 8.

Class 16 Mar 5. Seminar: Milestone 2.

Pre-class assignment: Upload the second research proposal report before the class begins.
In-class assignment: Present and discuss the report in small groups. Report back what you
learned from each other.
Demonstration: Understanding applied examples of quasi-experiments.

Week 9. Comparing cases

Class 17 Mar 10. Lecture: Comparative Research
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 9.

Class 18 Mar 12. Seminar

Demonstration 1: Secondary data. Finding data in available databases. Introduction to the use
of the most popular international datasets.
Demonstration 2: Citations and citation management best practices.

Week 10. Analyzing cases in-depth

Class 19 Mar 17. Lecture: Historical research and process tracing
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 10.

Class 20 Mar 19. Seminar: Milestone 3.

Pre-class assignment: Upload the third research proposal report before the class begins.
In-class assignment: Present and discuss the report in small groups. Report back what you
learned from each other.
Demonstration: Process tracing as the coolest qualitative toolkit for political scientists.

***Eid Break***

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Week 11. Collecting data from people

Class 21 Mar 24. Lecture: Surveys, interviews, and ethnography
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 11, 12 (only pp. 309-314) & 13 (only pp. 339-346)

Class 22 Mar 26. Seminar

In-class assignment: Discuss the pros and cons of the three main methods of data collection
Demonstration: Quality assurance in academic work: the peer review process. Why and how
do articles get accepted and rejected? We take a look at one of the rejection letters I received!

Week 12. Fundamentals of quantitative analysis

Class 23 Apr 7. Lecture: Description and inference
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 15.

Class 24 Apr 9. Seminar: Milestone 4.

Pre-class assignment: Upload the fourth research proposal report before the class begins.
In-class assignment: Present and discuss the report in small groups. Report back what you
learned from each other.
Demonstration: Interpreting regression tables using examples from published papers 1.

Week 13. Quantitative analysis of associations

Class 25 Apr 14. Lecture: Bivariate and Multivariate analysis
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 16 (only pp. 422-441) & 17

Class 26 Apr 16. Seminar

Demonstration: Interpreting regression tables using examples from published papers 2.

Week 14. Analyzing the content of texts

Class 27 Apr 21. Lecture: Content analysis
Assigned reading: H&H, Chapter 14.

Class 28 Apr 23. Seminar: Quiz #2 and review day

Wrap-up, Q&A