İstanbul Şehir University
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Political Science and International Relations
2014-2015 Spring Semester
POLS 504 / MTS 504
Methodology of Political Science and International Relations
Tuesday 13.00-16.00
Location: TBD
instructor: Hüseyin Alptekin
email: huseyinalptekin@sehir.edu.tr
office hours: Thursday 13.00-16.00 and/or by appointment
office location: South Campus #319
Course textbooks: Babbie, Earl. The Basics of Social Research. Wadsworth, 2011.
Van Evera, Stephen. Guide to methods for students of political science. Cornell University Press,
1997.
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. Designing social inquiry: Scientific inference
in qualitative research. Princeton University Press, 1994.
Course Description: This course aims at investigating the critical skills to evaluate others’
research and conduct your own scientific research in political science. It is intended to provide a
foundation for an understanding of the major approaches in the social sciences to the collection
and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, and the testing of theories. The course covers the
logic of scientific inquiry and various research techniques such as experimentation, scientific
sampling, survey research, field methods, and quantitative analysis that are commonly used by
researchers in political science. In other political science courses you may learn what different
political institutions and events are or why they develop. This course is very important because
you will learn how to conduct research about political institutions and events, and how to think
like a political scientist. This course is essential for becoming a wise consumer of information and
also essential for becoming a wise producer of research in political science. However, all of the
material covered in this course applies beyond political science and the university setting, so the
course will improve your ability to think critically and logically about any topic that you may
encounter in other courses, in job settings, and in your daily life.
Grading
The final grade assigned for the course should reflect the student’s overall performance in the
course, as described by the following guidelines:
A excellent work, complete mastery of course material
B good work, grasps most of the important concepts
C average work, grasps many but not all aspects of course material
D poor work, insufficient understanding of material
F failing
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The assignment of letter grades is as follows:
A+ = 97-100
B+ = 87-89
C+ = 77-79
A = 94-96
B = 84-86
C
= 74-76
A- = 90-93
B- = 80-83
C- = 70-73
D+ = 67-69
F = < 60
D
No curves
= 64-66
D- = 60-63
I reserve the right to change the assignment of letter grades.
Students are required to do all assigned course readings and attend course meetings. You need to
keep up with the readings, attend class, and pay attention to lecture and class discussions in order
to do well in this class. Grading is based upon a 12 page-long proposal assignment (30%), a 5
page-long literature review assignment (20%), three pop-up quizzes (each making up 5% of your
final course grade), three short take-home assignments (conceptualization assignment, theoretical
frame assignment, and project statement assignment, each is one single-spaced page and will make
up 5% of your final course grade), and in-class participation (20%). Further information on the
assignments will be announced in class and posted on LMS.
Here are the due dates:
Week 7 March 31st: Theoretical frame assignment
Week 8 April 7th: Conceptualization assignment
Week 9 April 14th: Project statement assignment
Week 11 April 28th: Literature review assignment
Week 15 May 26th: Final proposal assignment
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism is absolutely not tolerated. If you are not absolutely clear on what constitutes
plagiarism, contact University Writing Center or me for a detailed explanation.
Students should be aware that there are severe consequences for violations of academic integrity
such as cheating or plagiarism (turning in work that is not your own, without proper credit to the
original author). Students who are found to have cheated or committed plagiarism will face
disciplinary action under the İstanbul Şehir University Instruction for Ethics Committees 1 .
Students suspected of cheating and/or plagiarism will be subject to university policies, procedures
and sanctions as described in the “İstanbul ŞEHIR University Instruction for Ethics Committees”
found under “Bylaws and Instructions - Instructions”. Consequences of it may include any of the
following: No letter of recommendation, failing the assignment, failing the class, warning,
probation, suspension, and expulsion. As an instructor, I will penalize any student guilty of
plagiarism with an “F” for that assignment (ZERO GRADE), and a 10-point deduction on the final
semester grade. Depending on the nature of the violation, I may also refer the instance of
plagiarism to the Director of Student Affairs for possible suspension from the University.
Missed Assignment Policy: If you miss a quiz or another assignment because of illness, submit a
doctor's note within 5 calendar days and you will be given a make-up opportunity. If you need to
miss an exam for other professional or school-related commitment, bring documentation and make
arrangements with the professor at least 14 days in advance. Make up exams may not be in the
format of the in-class exams.
İstanbul ŞEHIR University Instruction for Ethics Committees:
https://www.sehir.edu.tr/en/SiteAssets/Pages/Academic/BlawsInstructions/Instructions/IstanbulSehirUniversityInstr
uctionforEthicsCommittees.pdf
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Laptops and Cellphones: Laptops and cellphones are not allowed in class because they are a
source of distraction. If you must use your computer or phone, please step out of the lecture hall.
Students with Disabilities: If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing
accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with me.
Tentative Course Plan
Week 1 February 17th: Social scientific inquiry
 Babbie, Chapter 1 Human Inquiry and Science
Week 2 February 24th: Theories and paradigms in social science I
 Babbie, Chapter 2: Paradigms, Theory, and Research
 Mark Blyth, 2009. “An Approach to Comparative Analysis or a Subfield within a Subfield?
Political Economy” in Mark Lichbach and Alan Zuckerman, eds., Comparative Politics:
Rationality, Culture, and Structure, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Week 3 March 3rd: Theories and paradigms in social science II
 Mark I. Lichbach, 2003. Is Rational Choice Theory All of Social Science? Chapters 1-4 (pp.
3-69).
 Talcott Parsons, 1951, The Social System, chapter II: The Major Points of Reference and
Structural Components of the Social System.
Week 4 March 10th: Theories and paradigms in social science III
 Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, 2001. “Taking Stock: The Constructivist Research
Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics,” Annual Review of Political
Science. 4:391–416.
 Bohman, James, "Critical Theory," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/critical-theory/>.
Week 5 March 17th: Theory building and research design
 Babbie, Chapter 4 Research Design
 Verba, Chapter 1 (pp.7-48)
Week 6 March 24th: Making inferences
 KKV, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 3-114)
Week 7 March 31st: Conceptualization, Operationalization and Measurement
 Babbie, Chapter 5 Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement
 Gerring, John. Social science methodology: A criterial framework. Cambridge University
Press, 2001, Chs. 3-4 (pp. 35-88).
Theoretical frame assignment due date!
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Week 8 April 7th: Literature review
 Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a literature review." PS: Political Science & Politics 39.01 (2006):
127-132.
 Randolph, Justus J. "A guide to writing the dissertation literature review." Practical
Assessment, Research & Evaluation 14.13 (2009): 1-13.
Conceptualization assignment due date!
Week 9 April 14th: Data collection methods
 Babbie, Chapter 7 The Logic of Sampling
 Babbie, Chapter 9 Survey Research
Project statement assignment due date!
Week 10 April 21st: Spring Break
NO CLASS
Week 11 April 28th: Data collection methods (cont.)
 Babbie, Chapter 8 Experiments
 Babbie, Chapter 10 Qualitative Field Research
Literature review assignment due date!
Week 12 May 5th: Data analysis methods
 Babbie, Chapter 11 Unobtrusive Research
 Babbie, Chapter 12 Evaluation Research
Week 13 May 12th: Data analysis methods (cont.)
 Babbie, Chapter 13 Qualitative Data Analysis
 Verba, Chapter 2 (pp.49-88)
Week 14 May 19th: Data analysis methods (cont.)
 Babbie, Chapter 14 Quantitative Data Analysis
Week 15 May 26th: Conclusion and General Review
 Babbie, Chapter 3 The Ethics and Politics of Social Research
Final proposal assignment due date!
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