Government of the Russian Federation
Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education
National Research University
"Higher School of Economics"
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Course syllabus
Research seminar
For the Bachelor's Degree Program 030200.62 "Political Science"
Author:
Maria V.Ivanova, candidate of science (Russian equivalent of Ph.D.) (mv_ivanova@hse.ru)
Approved at the meeting of the Department of
Humanities
Head of the Department
A.S.Kimerling______________________
«___» ___________ 2015 г.
Adopted by the Academic Council
Of Perm campus Higher School of Economics
______________________
«____» _______________ 2015 г.
Perm, 2015
This syllabus cannot be used by other University departments and other institutes of higher education
without the permission of the department that developed the syllabus
1
1. Scope of Use
The present syllabus sets up minimal requirements and course objectives for students,
defines the content of lectures and seminars and lays out students’ evaluation criteria. The course is
designed for professors teaching this course, their teaching assistants and BA students majoring in
"Political Science" (030200.62).
The syllabus meets
 the educational standards of the Higher School of Economics developed for BA program
030200.62 "Political Science" adopted at 24.06.2011, protocol №26;
 the curriculum of the BA program 030200.62 "Political Science" as of 2013.
2. Learning Objectives
The course is intended to introduce students to get skills of preparation and presentation
scientific results and papers. Particularly, there are research proposal, academic articles, conference
presentation and critical review.
3. Students' Competencies
By the end of the course students have to be able:
- to know about main types, features and specific of scientific papers;
- to write academic paper; particularly academic article, research proposal, academic paper, review
and academic presentation;
- to make well-build academic paper, accordingly academic specifications;
- to get skills of making academic article, presentation and review;
- to get preliminary skills of writing and editing academic papers.
Students' competencies expected by the end of the course:
Competency
Code
Description
Professional
ПК-2
is able to comprehend modern mainstream methods of political
science and apply it to the scientific research
Professional
ПК-1
is able to conduct research, analyze scientific problems, define
goals and tasks, formulate the subject and the object of research,
choose research methods and appraise the quality of research
4. The Course in the Structure of the BA program
The course is closely connected to other disciplines such as Comparative Politics, Political
Analysis and the Research seminar (at 2d year).
5. Course Plan
2
№
Section
Total
hours
Seminars
Independ
ent Work
1
Research strategies in Political Science
54
26
28
2
Presentation and evaluation in research area
54
26
28
Total
108
52
56
6. Forms of Control
Students’ performance is evaluated by control work, participation at the seminar`s work and
exam.
The formula for calculating the final grade is the following:
Оfinal = 0,4* Оseminars + 0,4*Оcontrolwork +0,2 *·Оexam
7. Course Contents
1.
Research strategies in Political Science
Topic 1. Research design.
Description. Prediction. Causality.
Theoretical interpretation. Variables. Indicators. How is possible to choose a research strategy?
Data collection and analysis methods: еypes and strategies. Small number cases research, large
number cases research. Research proposal. Academic article. Report. Paper.
Topic 2. Strategies at qualitative research.
Observation. Experiment. In-depth interviews. Focus groups. Expert semi-structured interviews.
Delphi technique.
Definition. Types. Problems. The principle of "funnels". Literature review
Academic article features.
Topic 3 Strategies at quantitative research.
Interview. Observation. Experiment.
Sampling. Methods of measuring. Contribution of statistical models in the study. General and
special with qualitative research: advantages and disadvantages. Academic article features.
3
Reading:
The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology – ed. by J. Box-Steffensmeier, H. E.Brady, D.Collier. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009. (доступен в электронном виде для студентов НИУ ВШЭ)
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286546.001.0001/oxfordhb9780199286546
The Oxford Handbook of Political Science – ed. by R. Goodin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
(доступен
в
электронном
виде
для
студентов
НИУ
ВШЭ)
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199604456.001.0001/oxfordhb9780199604456?rskey=eEcQKI&result=26
Greetham B. How to write better essays. Palgrave MacMillan. 2001.
How to write a paper// ed. By F.Moss. BMJ publishing groups. 2001. Сh.6.
Organizing democratic Choice: Party Representation over time. Ed. I.Budge, M.McDonald,
H.Keman.Oxford.2012
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654932.001.0001/acprof9780199654932?rskey=WKqg9S&result=1
Pennings P., Keman H. Kleinnijenhuis J. Doing Research in Political Science. SAGE, 2006
The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis // ed. by R.Goodin and Ch.Tilly. Oxford
University Press. 2009. P.3-34.
Dunn W. Public Policy Analysis: анализ политического курса. Prentice Hall, 1994
Sheplse, Kenneth A., Bonchek, Mark S. Analyzing Politics. Norton&Company.1997
Miller, Hugh T. Public Admin : Criticism and Creativity : Governing Narratives : Symbolic
Politics
and
Policy
Change University
of
AlabamaPress 2012 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/hselibrary/docDetail.action?docID=10632664&adv.x
=1&p00=public+policy&f00=all
2. Presentation and evaluation in research area
Тopic 1. Research papers presentation.
Individual style features. Followers. "Wide-spread" context and the results of the study. Limitation
of research. How is it possible to identify the main elements of conclusions?
Basic requirements to presentations. Mistakes.
Topic 2. Research assessment.
Basic requirements to the review. Relevance. Limitation of research. "Wide-spread" theoretical
context. Conclusions.
4
The requirements to the review. Basic writing techniques.
Readings:
The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology – ed. by J. Box-Steffensmeier, H. E.Brady, D.Collier. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009. (доступен в электронном виде для студентов НИУ ВШЭ)
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286546.001.0001/oxfordhb9780199286546
The Oxford Handbook of Political Science – ed. by R. Goodin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
(доступен
в
электронном
виде
для
студентов
НИУ
ВШЭ)
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199604456.001.0001/oxfordhb9780199604456?rskey=eEcQKI&result=26
Greetham B. How to write better essays. Palgrave MacMillan. 2001.
How to write a paper// ed. By F.Moss. BMJ publishing groups. 2001. Сh.6.
Perie D. How to write critical essays. Taylor and Francis.1985.
5