April 26-27, 2007
Your final exam will require you to put your newly honed methodological skills to work. One of these skills is the ability to read, evaluate, and improve upon quantitative statistical research in political science. Thus your final assignment is to produce a methodological review of an article manuscript. You may select any ONE of the three articles listed below. Imagine that the article you selected has been sent to you by the editor of a prominent journal in the field. The editor would like you to give an evaluation of any potential theoretical or methodological problems with the work as well as your overall judgement as to whether the article should be 1) accepted "as is" for publication, 2) accepted contingent on certain revisions, 3) offered the opportunity to "revise and resubmit" the manuscript with no guarantee of publication, or 4) rejected.
Addressing issues of theory is appropriate, but please be sure to connect them to potential methodological problems with the work (i.e. measurement, specification of the equation, etc.). In addition to identifying methodological problems, you should also be sure to provide the author(s) with suggested solutions or avenues for improvement. The usual format for such reviews is to begin by noting the positive aspects of the work (i.e. what contributions does it make - or try to make - to the literature). Then you note potential problems that hinder the analysis. You should try to frame these problems in terms of topics we have covered in the course. Third, you should try to provide the authors with some guidance about how to resolve those problems and improve the work. Finally, you draw some overall judgements for the editor about your suggestions regarding publication (i.e. thumbs up or thumbs down).
You have a 24 hour period to complete the exam, but I do not expect you to spend more than 3 hours working on the exam. The exam is due to be returned by NOON on FRIDAY APRIL 27th. The exam is open book and you are free to consult any notes, textbooks, articles or other written materials that you wish. However, you should not seek help from individuals inside or outside the class. Please submit your exams to me via email. If possible, please send it in the form of an attachment in MS Word or Adobe Acrobat format. If that is not possible, then simply paste your response into the body of an email. If you have questions or concerns about the exam, please do not hesitate to contact me at my office (919) 660-4318, on my cell phone (919) 260-4219, or by email at gelpi@duke.edu.
The articles you may select to review are:
Gerganov, Encho, Margarita Dilova, Elena Paspalanova, and Kristina Petkova. 1995. "Voting in the First Posttotalitarian Elections in Bulgaria." Political Psychology, 16:737-748.
Rattinger, Hans. 1976. "From War to War: Arms Races in the Middle East." International Studies Quarterly, 20:501-531.
Whitby, Kenny. 1985. "Effects of Interaction Between Race and Urbanization On Votes of Southern Congressmen." Legislative Studies Quarterly, 10:505-517.
GOOD LUCK!!!