History of Political Science

Traditional Historical, Legalism, Philosophy,

Descriptive

Modern – “Behavioralism” Political science as “science” Facilitated by development of

technology, computers

Card Reader (1960’s-70’s)

Tape Unit (1960’s-70’s)

Other “Revolutions” in Political Science

Post-behavioral Revolution (late 1960s)

Perestroika Movement

Is Political Science Arcane?

Science

Effort to understand the world (explain various phenomena) by systematically examining causal relationships among variables

Scientific explanation must have both logical and empirical support

Who Uses Science?

Natural sciences – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, etc.

Social sciences – Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Criminology, Anthropology, Political Science

The Business of Social Research

Where – universities (teaching vs. research universities), research institutes, government

Who – people with Ph.D.’s (with help from graduate students at universities)

Outlets for research – conferences, journals, books

The Business of Social Research

Grants NSF Research Foundations

Why Do Research?

To get paid! Because you like it

Types of Academic Departments

Ph.D. Granting Departments 6-year tenure clock for assistant professors >100 departments in the U.S. 2-2 teaching load is the norm All require significant research output to get

tenure 6-9 refereed journal articles Book = 3-5 articles Publications must be in respected publication

outlets

Types of Academic Departments

M.A. Granting Departments 5-6 year tenure clock for assistant

professors > 2-2 teaching load is the norm All require some research output to get

tenure

Types of Academic Departments

B.A. Granting Departments (LAC’s) 5-6 year tenure clock for assistant

professors 4-4 teaching load is the norm Many (if not most?) require some

research output to get tenure

PS Journals

Discipline-wide: American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science

Many specialized journals for different fields

Subfields in Political Science American Politics

Political Institutions Behavior

Comparative Politics Regional specialists

International Relations IPE International Conflict/Security Etc.

Political Theory Public Administration Public Policy

Specialized PS Journals

International Relations World Politics (also comparative politics) International Organization International Studies Quarterly Journal of Conflict Resolution

Specialized PS Journals

Comparative Politics World Politics (also IR) Comparative Politics Comparative Political Studies Many more (some are region specific)

Ranking PS Journals

Garand and Giles 2003 Representative sample of political

scientists Subjective evaluations Journal rankings vary by subfield Journal rankings vary by methodological

orientation

What Separates Top Journals from the Rest?

The peer-review process (for all peer-reviewed journals)

1. Author sends article to journal editor2. Editor sends anonymous copy of manuscript to 3

reviewers (other political scientists)3. Editor makes a decision and informs the author

(and sends the three anonymous reviews to author). Possibilities are: Accept Revise and Resubmit

Reviewed again by same reviewers, possibly others Reject

How to be successful in graduate school

This is your career – start treating it like one! Treat graduate school like a full time job

Join the APSA – now! Start reading job ads – now! Start browsing journals and reading the

ones that interest you Start going to conferences Read the PSJR blog