Advanced Quantitative Research (PO92Q) Syllabus 2023.24

We will be using R and R-Studio, two widespread standards in social science data analysis.

•    R and R-Studio are freeware and easy to install: please share between 5 and 20 minutes (depending on your experience) to install them on your own as soon as you can, and in any case before your first seminar class. First install the last version of R from www.r-project.org, then the last, free version of RStudio Desktop on rstudio.com.  Excel, a convenient complement for formatting outputs, can be downloaded from the Microsoft Office package on warwick.ac.uk/services/its (often preinstalled).

•    Face-to-face  seminars  take  place  in  a  computer  room  with  one  post  per  student, where  all softwares are normally pre-installed. You are welcome to use your own laptop as well.

•    Outside the seminars, you may use the University Work areas—see the University IT webpage.

•    If you  need  help  with  IT,  such as about your Windows/Macintosh operating system, software installation  or  connection  issues,   please  visit  the University   Help  Desk.   I  am   unfortunately materially unable to handle these issues, beyond helping you tailor and use the above-mentioned module-specific softwares.

•    The  University  network  (such  as  MyFiles)  can  be  used  to  store  your  files  and  transfer  easily between computers.

5.   Data

As the focus of the module is on data analysis, and not data collection, we will use secondary data. This year the focus will be on the four datasets below. These are individual-level survey datasets. Skills you will acquire using these data will be easily transferable to other data in your future research. Datasets are available for free for academic purpose, for example from theUK Data Service website.

•  TheBritish Social Attitudes (BSA 36, fieldwork 2018)asks over 3,000 people every year what it's like to live in Britain and how they think Britain is run. Since 1983 the survey has been tracking people's changing social, political and moral attitudes. It informs the development of public policy and   is   an   important   barometer   of   public   attitudes   used   by   opinion   leaders   and   social commentators.”

•  TheEuropean Social Survey (ESS round 9, 2018)is “a large-scale, cross-national, and longitudinal survey  research  program  on  basic  human  values.  It  provides  insights  into  the  ideas,  beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values and opinions of citizens all over  Europe.  It  is  a  unique  research project on how Europeans think about life, family, work, religion, politics and society” .

•   The World Values Survey (WVS wave 6, 2010-12), “a global research project, explores people's values and beliefs, how they change overtime and what social and political impact they have. Since

1981 a worldwide network of social scientists have conducted representative national surveys as part of WVS  in almost  100  countries. The WVS  measures,  monitors and  analyses: support for democracy, tolerance of foreigners and ethnic minorities, support for gender equality, the role of religion  and  changing   levels  of  religiosity,  the  impact  of  globalization,  attitudes  toward  the environment, work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, and subjective well-being.” Wave 7 is in progress; you may use these data, but make sure the countries you need are available.

•   The British Election Study (BES 2017 Post-election Survey), "one of the longest running election studies world-wide and the longest running social science survey in the UK... Surveys have taken place immediately after every general election since 1964… The British Election Study is a non- partisan, objective independent study providing world-class data and research into British general elections.  The   British   Election  Study  is  committed  to   providing  expertise  which  advances understanding of the British electorate to any interested party, as part of its broad commitment to public engagement and impact."

All these datasets are long (number of individuals) and wide (number of variables) enough to form the basis  of  in-depth  analyses  on  many  social  and  political  topics.  They  differ  with  respect  to  their geographical scope and their thematic focus. Some topics are shared by two or three of these datasets, in which case the difference is in the number and formulation of the questions on the topic, as well as in the availability of other, more standard questions.

Note that in your final essay, you may use two or more waves of the same survey for studying historical change or evolutions. Class exercises are  limited to the  most  recent waves,  but  older waves and cumulative datasets are available. Beware of the size of the files: above 50 Mo, you might have trouble loading and processing the data. To reduce size, consult the documentation and on the web form for data downloading, only request the variables useful to your project.

Whatever the source of the data you use, do not forget to cite their authors as indicated on the documentation or the website.

6.    Bibliography and other resources

Detailed weekly references, with pages and links towards resources, will be available on theWarwick Library  Reading  list  from week  1.  Most  references  are  available  at  the  University  Library,  mostly electronically.

In addition to textbooks, you are encouraged to read weekly one article with quantitative analyses in a journal of your discipline. Try and focus, more than on the substance, on the data, methods and tools at play, and how they correspond to the module’s weekly topics. As a matter of routine you could consult the most recent issues of a number of journals as they come into the library and establish for yourselves whether they contain pertinent articles. Search for applications of personal interest, as long  as  they  include  similar  statistical  developments  as  treated  the  corresponding  week.  Some journals tend to reduce quantitative analyses to a race to sophistication, which is sometimes sterile. I rather recommend journals that take a more open-minded approach to methods and publish articles that subordinate methods to research questions.

You could also consult on a regular basis one or more “reference” newspapers (e.g. Financial Times, Independent, Guardian, The Economist), blogs or other websites, where you will find considerable reference to quantitative studies. They provide plenty of examples of good and bad investigation.

You might also consider keeping a close eye on the National Centre for Research Methods materials, which provide introductions to a range of topics:

http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/

7.   Assessment

The essay  is  a 4,000-word  maximum  research  report  comprising:  an  explanation  of the  research question, a succinct  literature  review,  hypotheses,  justification of sample  and variables,  analysis, interpretation, and conclusion. It should make use of at least one of the methods listed in Section 3 above. Using two or more of these methods will be rewarded, as well as combining survey waves and/or countries.

Choose a title from the list on Moodle. I recommend thinking thoroughly about which title suits your purpose best. It should fit your personal interest and knowledge of a topic, possibly of a country or group of countries, as well as your choice of method from the module. There are more titles offered than students,so everybody should have enough time to identify their best fit.

The list of essay titles will be released on Friday 12.01, noon, on Moodle. Choosing a title will be possible between Friday 12.01, noon, and Friday 26.01, noon. Essay should be submitted on Thursday 03.05, noon, on Tabula.

A number of rules are put in place for two reasons: practising social scientific quantitative research in real conditions and ensuring module-level fairness across all students from distinct courses and   disciplines.

Please check in the first place the general assessment rules in your departmental course regulations.

The following rules apply for all in PO92Q, even where they contradict the regulations from your department, whether PAIS, CIM or other (ask if you are not sure):

1.     Deliver your essay in Word, or equivalent text format. You may deliver in pdf only in case you are using Latex.

2.     Use the Essay Submission Cover Sheet available on Moodle, which includes the essay title exactly as you chose it, the word count without illustrations, the total word count, and an abstract of 150 to 200 words.

3.     Use Times  New  Roman,  size  11,  line  spacing  1.5  and justified alignment.  No  Word styles, no headers, no footers, no fancy formatting.

4.     Be focused and precise in referencing. Theorising is not a goal perse in this module, only a means to elaborate a meaningful empirical research design. Do not use more than 15 references per essay. Always indicate pages or chapters, as a proof that you did read the reference. Do not cite what you did not read.

5.     Use  Harvard  style  (many quick guides  are available online): references between parentheses, such as ‘(name date: pages)’, together with a complete bibliography at the end of your essay.

6.     Do not use notes. Either write a sentence in the main text, or do not write it.

7.     Your appendix should contain:

-    Up  to  one  page  of  additional  statistical  outputs  that  are  relevant  to  your  essay,  but  not essential to it. Essential outputs should go into the main text.

-    A full copy of your  code. You may for example copy-paste your  R-Studio source pane. The syntax should be structured in sections and subsections and commented using # signs.

8.     Essays should not be more than 4,000 words each, without any minimum.  Illustrations (graphs and tables) are included (see point 9 below) but title page, summary, bibliography and appendix are excluded.

9.     For tables and figures, a page counts as 400 words. For example,a table or figure taking up half of a page counts as 200 words out of your 4,000 total. Illustrations should not count for more than 30% of your whole essay (i.e. equivalent to  1200 words).  If you  lack space, send a less important illustration into the appendix, or format your illustrations more concisely.

10.   Penalties are automatically applied along PAIS rules for the following issues:

-    Late delivery: 5 marks per 24 hours late (each 24-hour period is considered to be one working day).

-    Excess  length:  5  points  for  each  5%  (200  words)  in  excess,  or  part  thereof,  that  is:  5  pts between 4,001 and 4,200, 10 pts between 4,201 and 4,400, etc.

-    Academic misconduct (plagiarism, contract cheating, etc.): when the marker suspects such a case, the essay is immediately transferred to the PAIS academic conduct committee, which then investigates. Do not take a chance.