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 editor 2.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