Abstract
76.2828 ALRABABAH, Ala, et al. —
Panel surveys and phone-based data collection are essential for survey research and are often used together due to the practical advantages of conducting repeated interviews over the phone. These tools are particularly critical for research in dynamic or high-risk settings, as highlighted by researchers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, preventing high attrition is a major challenge in panel surveys. Current solutions in political science focus on statistical fixes to address attrition ex-post but often overlook a preferable solution: minimizing attrition in the first place. Building on a review of political science panel studies and established best practices, we propose a framework to reduce attrition and introduce an online platform to facilitate the logistics of survey implementation. The web application semi-automates survey call scheduling and enumerator workflows, helping to reduce panel attrition, improve data quality, and minimize enumerator errors. Using this framework in a panel study of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, we maintained participant retention at 63 percent four and a half years after the baseline survey. We provide guidelines for researchers to report panel studies transparently and describe their designs in detail. [R]
76.2829 AREL-BUNDOCK, Vincent, et al. —
The social sciences face a replicability crisis. A key determinant of replication success is statistical power. We assess the power of political science research by collating over 16,000 hypothesis tests from about 2,000 articles in 46 areas of the discipline. Under generous assumptions, we show that quantitative research in political science is greatly underpowered: the median analysis has about 10% power, and only about 1 in 10 tests have at least 80% power to detect the consensus effects reported in the literature. We also find substantial heterogeneity in tests across research areas, with some being characterized by high power but most having very low power. To contextualize our findings, we survey political methodologists to assess their expectations about power levels. Most methodologists greatly overestimate the statistical power of political science research. [R]
76.2830 BENSTEAD, Lindsay J., et al. —
Despite technological innovation and the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dearth of experimental research on the effects of virtual instruction. Using an original field experiment conducted among 100 UAE and USA students, we investigate how a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project on international development shapes social trust, tolerance, and political engagement. In an experimental design, UAE-based students were randomly assigned to a group with either their classmates or, through online interaction, with USA-based students, while in a quasi-experimental design, USA-based students collaborated online with UAE-based students. UAE-based COIL students developed greater interpersonal trust of others in their society, but a reduced desire to make friends with Americans. USA-based students developed a greater desire to follow international issues (i.e., political engagement). Proposing a social identity theory (SIT) of social capital formation, we argue that UAE-based students, who live in a society in which social identity is highly salient, redefined their social in-group boundaries and came to see members of their own diverse society more warmly while perceiving greater differences from Americans. By illustrating COIL’s complex effects, our research extends the literature on social capital formation and offers insights for enhancing the benefits of COIL. [R]
76.2831 BENTON, Allyson L. ; JORDAN, Soren ; PHILIPS, Andrew Q. —
Autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) and generalized ARCH (GARCH) models allow users to estimate the conditional mean and conditional error variance of a time series process. Although simulation methods exist to disaggregate the short- and long-run effects of covariate shocks to the conditional mean, scholars’ inferences about the conditional error variance are currently limited to tabular interpretation. We propose a novel method of interpretation that moves beyond these tabular inferences. First, we show how changes in ARCH-GARCH processes are conditional on starting values, other covariates, and dynamics, which has led to incomplete or even incorrect inferences. We then develop three bootstrapping techniques to simulate conditional error variance model results and showcase the usefulness of each through replication of prominent studies. Our techniques demonstrate the crucial role of simulation and prediction for drawing statistical and substantive inferences about the volatility of dynamic time series processes. [R]
76.2832 BJØRKHOLT, Solveig —
This article presents an original database on international standards, constructed using modern data gathering methods. StanDat facilitates studies into the role of standards in the global political economy by (1) being a source for descriptive statistics, (2) enabling researchers to assess scope conditions of previous findings, and (3) providing data for new analyses, for example the exploration of the relationship between standardization and trade, as demonstrated in this article. The creation of StanDat aims to stimulate further research into the domain of standards. Moreover, by exemplifying data collection and dissemination techniques applicable to investigating less-explored subjects in the social sciences, it serves as a model for gathering, systematizing, and sharing data in areas where information is plentiful yet not readily accessible for research. [R]
76.2833 BROACHE, M. P. ; OLSEN, Rachel —
Recent research has demonstrated the potential value of the “embedded librarian model” for promoting development of information literacy skills among students in undergraduate political science courses. This model involves integrating librarians in courses to deliver information literacy training and assist students with information needs. While previous research has focused mostly on the effectiveness of the embedded librarian model in traditional, “in-person” settings, the increasing demand for online and other “non-traditional” courses, both in the context of COVID-19 and more generally, points to the need to evaluate whether this model is effective in online formats. This paper undertakes such an evaluation, comparing the effectiveness of the “embedded librarian model” as implemented in an in-person version of an upper-level undergraduate African politics course taught in fall 2019 versus an online version of the same course taught in fall 2020. To this end, we recruited faculty from the institution’s library and political science/international studies programs to review student research papers for their application of relevant information literacy skills, including identification and evaluation of credible sources, effective integration of sources, and citation. We find that papers submitted for the in-person version of the course scored significantly higher on all components of information literacy, and overall, as compared to the online version of the course. While caveats relating to the specific circumstances of the fall 2020 semester in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic apply, these findings suggest that delivery modality may condition the effectiveness of the “embedded librarian” model. [R]
76.2834 BUFKIN, Sarah ; WOLF, Anne ; BACHLEITNER, Kathrin —
The study of gender and sexuality in political science used to be a question of absence, as scholars grappled with Cynthia Enloe’s famous question in Bananas, Beaches and Bases (UC Press, 2000, p. 7): “where are the women?” Today, women are present in the discipline as both knowledge producers and subjects of study. But formal inclusion does not guarantee substantive equality, and silences and exclusions remain pronounced. Nor is “woman” a stable political category, as decolonial, antiracist, and queer theorists challenge monolithic, essentialized accounts of gender and sex. Political science now asks more complex questions — about the multiple marginalizations that some women and LGBTQ+ people face across race, class, nationality, and ability and about capitalism and the gendered division of labor. Notably, recent books embrace diverse methods and center the lives and agency of the communities they discuss. Gender and sexuality, as objects of study, often turn our attention to the “underside” of political institutions and capitalist formations; as methods, they reveal how everyday people theorize and navigate the power asymmetries that shape their lives. [R]
76.2835 CHANG, Helen —
Social annotation platforms can promote direct interaction with course materials and foster a collaborative learning environment. Social annotation also offers a potential solution to reading completion issues and the increasing use of digital shortcuts. This article examines the pedagogical promise of social annotation tools, with a comparison of two prominent platforms, Hypothesis and Perusall. The review outlines key features including auto-grading and possible evaluation methods, and presents preliminary data from Introduction to American Government courses on student access patterns, quiz performance, and reading completion rates. [R]
76.2836 CHEIKHALI, Sarah, et al. —
The challenges and opportunities of accessing empirical material present a puzzle insofar as they index simultaneously the politics of research archives and the positionality of researchers. Today, amid increasing authoritarianism, disinformation, and the obstacles created by the securitisation and privatisation of data, access to reliable information is frequently blocked or complicated by the interests of political management, corporate monopoly, and surveillance capitalism, as well as by institutional and personal constraints on researchers. At the same time, digital archives, social media, blogs, diverse global communications, and even the information management tools of authoritarian and corporate control, create innumerable alternative access points for research. In this article, we describe all of these other access points as ‘alternative archives’, and, in doing so, we also seek to highlight three overlapping definitions of their alternative status in terms of (1) empirical, (2) counter-hegemonic, and (3) epistemic meanings. We next provide five state-of-the-art examples of overcoming research obstacles due to state-of-the-world developments in surveillance capitalism, securitisation, authoritarianism, information control, and human insecurity, suggesting that we can learn from obstacles to research as well as the alternatives. [R]
76.2837 CHIU, Albert, et al. —
Two-way fixed effects (TWFE) models are widely used in political science to establish causality, but recent methodological discussions highlight their limitations under heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) and violations of the parallel trends (PT) assumption. This growing literature has introduced numerous new estimators and procedures, causing confusion among researchers about the reliability of existing results and best practices. To address these concerns, we replicated and reanalyzed 49 studies from leading journals that employ TWFE models for causal inference using observational panel data with binary treatments. Using six HTE-robust estimators, diagnostic tests, and sensitivity analyses, we find: (1) HTE-robust estimators yield qualitatively similar but highly variable results; (2) while a few studies show clear signs of PT violations, many lack evidence to support this assumption; and (3) many studies are underpowered when accounting for HTE and potential PT violations. We emphasize the importance of strong research designs and rigorous validation of key identifying assumptions. [R]
76.2838 DOLEYS, Thomas J. —
This article is part of a decade-long research program whose goal is to understand the role published SoTL scholarship plays in the teaching lives of faculty. Using data from a survey administered at three points over the last ten years (2012, 2017, 2023), the project aims to answer four research questions: Who in the professoriate utilizes published SoTL for the purpose of enhancing their teaching effectiveness? How muchdo SoTL-engaged faculty use the literature? What content do SoTL- engaged faculty examine? Are there differences between SoTL-engaged faculty and those who are not? Analysis of the responses yielded four key insights. First, the proportion of faculty who engage published SoTL has been rising over time. Second, although the level of faculty engagement has been rising, the depth of that engagement has been relatively shallow and is trending downward. Third, though SoTL-engaged faculty have shown the greatest interest in material related to face-to-face course content, interest in online modality content has been rising. Finally, of the individual and institutional variables examined to distinguish the engaged from the non-engaged, the only statistically significant correlate is gender. Faculty who identify as female are more likely than their male counterparts to active engage published SoTL. [R]
76.2839 EVANS, Georgina, et al. —
Survey researchers have long protected respondent privacy via deidentification (removing names and other directly identifying information) before sharing data. Unfortunately, recent research demonstrates that these procedures fail to protect respondents from intentional reidentification attacks, a problem that threatens to undermine vast survey enterprises in academia, government, and industry. This is especially a problem in political science because political beliefs are not merely the subject of our scholarship; they represent some of the most important information respondents want to keep private. We confirm the problem in practice by re-identifying individuals from a survey about a controversial referendum declaring life beginning at conception. We build on the concept of “differential privacy” to offer new data-sharing procedures with mathematical guarantees for protecting respondent privacy and statistical validity guarantees for social scientists analyzing differentially private data. The cost of these procedures is larger standard errors, which can be overcome with larger sample sizes. [R]
76.2840 FELDMAN, Nathan H. —
A schism between political theory and the broader discipline frequently shapes political science. How, when, and why did this occur? Deploying new archival evidence, I show how a cadre of leading political theorists between the 1940s and 1970s identified their vocation with humanism, presenting it as eternally opposed to the practices of “positivists” and “methodists.” To tell this story, I focus on key figures, Leo Strauss and Sheldon Wolin, and critical institutions — the Conference for the Study of Political Thought and the journal Political Theory — to recount how political theory went its own way and the consequences of it doing so. [R]
76.2841 GENTRY, Bobbi ; LAWRENCE, Christopher N. —
As students have become more career-oriented, it has become increasingly challenging to recruit them into political science, since connections between the major and many potential job opportunities are not immediately apparent. Consequently, departments are seeing declining numbers in majors. To counter this trend, departments need to identify new strategies to recruit students into our major. This work examines strategies and opportunities for recruitment of both prospective college students and current students from other majors. We also address strategies for current students, including introducing a cohort model, creating a departmental community, and making the work that we do more visible. [R]
76.2842 GLENDINNING, Simon —
Academic studies of Europe in the postwar period increasingly focused on aspects of European integration. This development was led by contributions from the social sciences, not the humanities. The article explores a text first written in the 1950s and then revised in the 1960s which provides a strong rationale for the present focus and approach. The text in question is Denys Hay’s book Europe: The Emergence of an Idea, which argues that Europe’s relatively recent historical emergence as a cultural unity makes it fit for a distinctive form of regional studies. Hay conceived such studies as having their centre of gravity in concrete problems that stand in the way of achieving closer European union; concrete problems in, especially, politics, economics, and law, which closer union would raise. What Hay did not think such studies required was a contribution from the humanities. The article explores Hay’s argument for that view, and offers a counterargument to the effect that, in light of the fundamental changes in the humanities since the 1960s, European Studies today would significantly benefit from incorporating humanities elements and approaches into its formation. [R]
76.2843 GONZÁLEZ-ROSTANI, Valentina, et al. —
The discipline of political science faces significant disparities in the representation and participation of underrepresented groups in graduate education, including first-generation college students, racial and ethnic minorities, and women. Underrepresentation has a wide variety of limiting effects, including a narrower range of questions being explored within the field. This article proposes a template for teaching and mentoring undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds to enhance their opportunities in graduate programs. Specifically, it examines the Mobilization and Political Economy (MPE) Summer Program, an inresidence graduate pipeline program designed to equip participants to study and conduct research on political mobilization, social movements, and political economy. The MPE Summer Program aims to develop and sustain broad-scale collaborative infrastructures that prefigure reciprocal and equitable pathways to increase participation in the social sciences across the United States. [R]
76.2844 GORETTI, Leo, et al. —
The rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools poses a number of urgent questions to all those involved in knowledge production processes. In order to discuss its potential benefits as well as the associated risks, this forum brings together the perspectives of four editors and researchers, building on two events organised by The International Spectator in collaboration with the International Studies Association (ISA) in 2024. Leo Goretti looks at the impact of generative AI on scholarly journals, discussing the policies of major publishers and interrogating the productivity-enhancing potential of AI tools for research and editorial work. Anselm Küsters focuses on how generative AI could be used in a responsible way by researchers, and what skills students and scholars will have to acquire to this end. Stella Morgana unpacks the hidden biases and power relations that underlie generative AI and how this may affect the selection of sources reproducing hierarchies and disparities. Ananya Sharma reflects on undergoing projects aimed at constructing context-and culture-specific generative AI software, and the conditions under which these can either contribute to decolonise generative AI or fuel forms of techno-nationalism. [R]
76.2845 GUARIGLIA, Alessandra ; NIKOLSKO-RZHEVSKYY, Alex ; ZADOROZHNA, Olha —
We investigate the effect of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the research productivity of scholars affiliated with around 15,000 Ukrainian research institutions. Using the 2014 Russian invasion as a quasi-natural experiment, we apply a difference-in-differences estimator on a sample of half a million journal articles collected from Scopus. Researchers affiliated with institutions located in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk and the whole of Crimea form our treatment group, and those affiliated with institutions in the unoccupied regions of Ukraine, our control group. We document a significant decline in quantity and quality of research, measured by the average number of papers/citations, produced by authors based in the Donetsk/Luhansk occupied regions with active hostilities. By contrast, we observe a rise in the quantity of papers published by authors based in annexed Crimea. Yet, this pattern, which can be explained by increased funding by Russian authorities towards institutions located in Crimea, is driven by articles published in Russian journals and by scientists with relatively low productivity. Our results are robust when using different control groups and estimation methods, including causal machine learning tools, and when controlling for publication lags. [R] [See Abstr. 76.3855]
76.2846 HEFFERNAN, Ann K. —
Contributing to a growing interest in disability in political science, this article makes the case for the central role of disability in upholding the belief in work as requisite for full citizenship. Turning to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it shows how disability and the figure of the disabled worker were used to fortify emergent understandings of work against the changes wrought by industrial capitalism. Focusing on three sites of disabled labor — the school-based workshop, custodial institution, and industrial factory — it reveals the crucial ideological work performed by disability in sustaining the myth of the independent workercitizen. Where existing scholarship has focused on disability either as an identity category or as a target of rights and policy, this article models an alternative approach, arguing for the relevance of disability as a concept that is integral to, and productive of, the ways we understand citizenship and political belonging. [R]
76.2847 HOWLETT, Marnie ; KONKEN, Lauren C. —
The “home-field” dichotomy has long been a core assumption of fieldwork in political science. As in other social science disciplines, political scientists rely on these categories to contextualize our research within particular time-space nexuses and to separate our personal lives and private dwellings and institutions from our sources, participants, and broader research environments. Although the spatial, temporal, and emotional divisions between our “homes” and “fields” have always been arbitrary, they are increasingly blurred when we use remote and online methods for research, especially for qualitative studies. This article problematizes the home-field dichotomy within the context of remote and online political science field research. We contend that the overlap of our homes and fields in digital fieldwork poses different challenges for our professional boundaries than offline research, particularly in terms of separating our personal and research lives, mitigating risk, and protecting our mental health. Given the growing use of remote and online methods, we argue that the discipline of political science must account more seriously for the muddling of our homes and fields to support rigorous, transparent, and ethical empirical research. [R]
76.2848 IKEDA, Yuichi —
Human survivability studies that are conducted at Kyoto University integrate natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences to address global issues through transdisciplinary research. This study proposes transdisciplinary mechanisms with three stages: (1) phenomenon elucidation, (2) consensus building, and (3) contract control. The phenomenon elucidation stage merges academic modules with social and natural sciences. Social science modules develop knowledge graphs, whereas natural sciences provide various analytical tools, employing data science, network science, and machine learning. Case studies, including blockchain-based distributed autonomous organizations for decarbonization and disaster resilience, promote a sustainable society and local revitalization. [R]
76.2849 JEDD, Theresa, et al. —
International climate negotiations stall when countries do not view problems outside of their national interest or do not consider renewable energy as collectively beneficial. This is not inevitable. Political science university educators can help students view climate negotiations beyond national interest and imbue needed negotiation skills through the use of simulation games. Simulation games can depict uneven distribution of existing energy infrastructure, wealth, natural resources, and population — all of which make the energy transition “geopolitical.” By negotiating policies and trading inputs, technology, resources, or knowledge with other countries, it is possible to phase out fossil fuels. This study imparts lessons learned from a European project to turn the concept of international cooperation on the energy transition into a simulation game called ‘Geovania.’ Game sessions reinforced the learning objectives to teach students about the politics of renewable energy transitions, gave practical experience negotiating, and portrayed the two-level domestic/international interface. In this study, we begin with the need for simulation games on the geopolitics of energy transitions, present the development of this game, and offer observations from instructors who developed and used this game in their classrooms. The results include cumulative insights from 14 sessions in six countries with 292 university students. We find that the game sparked students’ interest in the energy transition, in part due to the features of the digital interface, and that skilled facilitation can build on students’ understanding of material to meet various course objectives. [R]
76.2850 JEPSON, Benjamin ; HATEMI, Pete —
We collected data on every tenure-track (TT) faculty member in the 122 PhD-granting political science departments in the United States to identify which graduate programs place faculty members in our discipline’s research universities. The top 20% of departments produced 75% of all faculty and the bottom 50% accounted for less than 5% of all TT faculty members at a research university. Forty-nine programs did not have a single graduate placed in a TT position at a PhD-granting department in the past 10 years, and 18 programs did not have a single graduate in a TT position at a PhD-granting department at all. The overwhelming majority of TT faculty members are at a lower or equally ranked department. The results have important implications for prospective graduate students and the future of our discipline. [R]
76.2851 KAFTAN, Joanna ; LINANTUD, John —
While turn-based simulations such as Statecraft have been shown to be engaging and effective in the classroom, less is known about whether outcomes differ by gender. Even less is known about whether course focus — domestic or international — affects student performance differently by gender. This study examines two sources of data: 1. institutional data for GPA (political science graduates) as well as final grades for both domestic and international content courses and 2. final course grades, the average of multiple-choice exams, and scores on final written assignments from POLS 33XX Introduction to IR courses with and without the online simulation Statecraft. The results show that while the GPAs of political science majors do not differ by gender, men outperform women in political science courses with international content. This is true even when controlling for a political science major. In addition, Statecraft significantly increased final grade averages in POLS 33XX Introduction to IR for both men and women when compared to non-Statecraft sections. However, men, on average, continued to score higher on final grades, average exam scores, and major written assignments regardless of Statecraft use. Pedagogical interventions are discussed. [R]
76.2852 KEENER, Robert —
This article shows how the sudden introduction of large language models (LLMs) has allowed a sudden, significant increase in the ability of political science professionals to plagiarize their articles by prompting LLMs to write for them. Evidence of this is shown through a brief overview of the limitations of LLMs and by searching for words that are disproportionately used by the most popular LLM, ChatGPT, in peer-reviewed articles. What is found is a rapid spike in the use of words that are unremarkable except for their popularity in ChatGPT’s output as determined by an AI professional. This shows that this method can be used to indicate the likelihood of plagiarism in a given article. It then concludes with the limitations of this keyword detection method and recommendations for limiting LLM plagiarism in the field of political science as a whole. [R]
76.2853 LEE, Kyuwon, et al. —
This article explores the use of large language models (LLMs), specifically GPT, for enhancing information extraction from unstructured text in political science research. By automating the retrieval of explicit details from sources including historical documents, meeting minutes, news articles, and unstructured search results, GPT significantly reduces the time and resources required for data collection. The study highlights how GPT complements human research assistants, combining automated efficiency with human oversight to improve the reliability and depth of research. This integration not only makes comprehensive data collection more accessible; it also increases the overall research efficiency and scope of research. The article highlights GPT’s unique capabilities in information extraction and its potential to advance empirical research in the field. Additionally, we discuss ethical concerns related to student employment, privacy, bias, and environmental impact associated with the use of LLMs. [R]
76.2854 LEICHT, Caroline V., et al. —
Navigating academia as early career academics (ECAs) is increasingly challenging, with many facing structural inequities, the rise of precarious work, and the increased marketisation of higher education in the United Kingdom and beyond. The purpose of this article is to provide a platform for learnings and insights gleaned from our experiences as five ECAs who worked together to lead the ‘early career network’ for a learned association between 2021 and 2023. In the article, we explore some of the challenges, opportunities, and call for actions that come out of our own encounters with the neoliberal higher education landscape as both students and workers in the social sciences. We propose a dual conceptualisation of solidarity as both resonant and differential, and mobilise this theoretical contribution to reflect on themes of community, materiality, care, knowledge, and labour as key strands which shape the interface between ECAs and complex higher education ecologies. Theoretically and practically, we aim to facilitate solidarity in early career communities, mobilising ‘ECA’ as more than a purely temporal category. Finally, we make recommendations to colleagues across the discipline for forging and nourishing collaborative, healthy, and inclusive environments in which ECAs can thrive. [R]
76.2855 MALLOY, Jonathan —
Canadian Journal of Political Science 58(4), Dec. 2025 : 741775.
Canadian political scientists have often taken a normative approach to political institutions like the constitution, the electoral system, and Parliament. An assumption that institutional reform can itself be a solution to political problems is also reflected in general public commentary and at times has been openly encouraged and supported by the Canadian state itself. This approach has many strengths but also deficiencies, particularly the degree to which it replicates existing understandings of the state, focused on the distribution of power among white men. The study of political institutions in Canada must continue growing to incorporate and integrate a greater diversity of perspectives, including interrogating and challenging their very foundations. [R]
76.2856 MARLEKU, Alfred ; PESHKOPIA, Ridvan —
What explains Political Science (PS) student preferences for online, onsite and mixed online-onsite course mode? Much of the academic debate about students’ preferences for different course modes assumes correlates and determinants of those preferences as binary: If a factor positively predicts students’ preferences for online courses, the same factor would negatively predict preferences for onsite courses. In reality, this might not be the case, but we still have no explanation about what would predict those preferences. We frame our argument within the social cognitive theory, interaction equivalency theorem, and social integration theory, and test it with three sets of variables: students’ computer literacy, their preferences for vocational orientation of PS studies, and prior research experiences. We found computer literacy as well as preferences for philosophical, statistical, mathematical and computer application orientation of PS studies to positively predict all course modes considered; and that students’ prior research experiences with peers negatively predict preferences for all course modes considered. We test our hypotheses with data collected by surveying PS students in 11 universities in three Western Balkans countries, Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, during the 2021-2022 academic year. [R]
76.2857 MORRELL, Robert —
Two progressive academic journals were established during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in Durban. This article provides an explanation for the emergence of these journals at that time and in that place, and focuses attention on the activist academic community of Durban. Using interviews with the editors of the two journals, Agenda and Transformation, and with local academic activists, it argues that a key element was the commitment by a largely university-based community to link activism with research and to contribute to building a culture of critical enquiry. The article traces connections between academic activism in the 1980s and 1990s and the 1973 ‘Durban moment’ and contends that the Durban moment created a fertile environment for subsequent universitybased politics that linked research and publication to a quest for a postapartheid future. Journals contribute to the production of knowledge and in this respect Agenda and Transformation also contributed to the work of intellectual decolonisation by creating forums for debate and a space for work to build a post-apartheid society. [R]
76.2858 MURADOVA, Lala, et al. —
Innovations in deliberative and participatory democracy have been rapidly adopted by policy makers. Long-term success of democratic reform hinges on developing research through open, reproducible, and ethical standards that secure trust in findings. This study examines how Democratic Innovations (DI) scholars implement open science practices (OSP). We analyze empirical research published in English-language peer-reviewed journals between 1970 and 2021. Our analysis reveals limited OSP use: less than 1% of research articles involve replication and approximately 3.5% provide full data access, despite an increase in the past decade to almost 8% of articles published in 2020. Open publishing has increased, reaching almost 50% of publications in recent years. The article concludes by discussing how OSP can contribute to improving the practice of DI and the policy effects of institutional design. Researchers who understand institutional design for inclusive collective action are best placed to make the changes required to promote open science. [R]
76.2859 O’HARA, Glen —
Although the financial crisis facing the United Kingdom’s universities is by now well known, the detailed reasons behind it have been less prominent in public and political debate. It is true that frozen tuition fees have gradually reduced the true value of funding for undergraduate teaching, but the sector’s deep instability is also a result of two further errors. The first — removing all controls over home student numbers — made universities’ income generally less reliable and allowed famous institutions to grow very quickly at the expense of others. The second major problem has been successive governments’ encouragement of international student recruitment, upon which universities increasingly depended until Whitehall and Westminster then reversed course and left the sector exposed. Overall, UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, continuously retreating in the face of very limited public sympathy and, therefore, political interest. [R]
76.2860 OHKI, Yu, et al. —
This study proposes a methodology for visualising the importance and relationships of ideas expressed in dialogue through network analysis based on a structured workshop process. Node centrality is evaluated from a directed graph that represents multiple sticky notes on an online whiteboard, where nodes represent these sticky notes and edges connect them. The purpose of the study is to identify functional concepts and clarify the flow of ideas during dialogue, thereby providing insight into how participants influence each other’s thinking. Analysis of the relationships between the Answer nodes and directly connected nodes shows that centrality scores of nodes influencing the Answer nodes are generally high. Additionally, nodes in the dialogue exhibit increased PageRank, indicating proximity to highly linked nodes, alongside rising betweenness centrality, suggesting a correlation between these centrality scores. However, natural language processing analysis of transcripts reveals that the words on sticky notes of high-centrality nodes hold extremely low importance, contrasting with centrality analysis results. These findings suggest that conventional frequency-based text analysis may overlook influential ideas in dialogue, highlighting the added value of networkbased evaluation. This study offers a new perspective for identifying functional concepts by visualising thought flow in dialogues, particularly as a practical learning tool in transdisciplinary dialogue for effective consensus-building among diverse stakeholders. [R]
76.2861 PUENTE PACHECO, Mario Alberto de la, et al. —
This study tests the effectiveness of integrating ChatGPT into debate sessions to strengthen critical thinking and argumentation skills among undergraduate diplomacy students in Colombia. One hundred and sixty-two participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group using ChatGPT during debates and a control group engaging in traditional debates. Pretest and post-test assessments measured participants’ skills using adapted versions of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and a custom argumentation rubric. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) found higher scores in the experimental group for combined learning outcomes. Univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) showed improvements in understanding complex concepts, critical thinking, and argumentation skills for the experimental group. Structural equation modeling (SEM) noted direct and indirect effects of ChatGPT on these skills. The study also analyzed participants’ perceptions through qualitative data from post-test open-ended questions. These findings highlight ChatGPT’s potential in fostering essential skills in resource-constrained educational settings, while noting implementation challenges in developing nations. This research adds to the growing literature on AI-powered tools in education, particularly in economically emerging regions. [R]
76.2862 RECKENDORF, Alexandra, et al. —
In January 2016 and 2020, political science faculty and students traveled to New Hampshire for the run-up to the state’s “first in the nation” presidential primaries. For ten days, students met with presidential primary candidates, and discussed the context and content of the election with state officials, campaign operatives, and media professionals. These first-hand experiences, accompanied by faculty lectures and class discussions, helped students gain a better understanding of presidential primary campaigns as part of an experiential learning course on political campaigns and communication. Utilizing Kolb’s experiential learning theory, our work explores how students were impacted by the unique experiential learning experience. Specifically, we hypothesize that this course can lead students to become better citizens who think and act in ways that are normatively desirable in a democracy. Data supports our hypotheses; when compared to students not enrolled in an experiential learning version of the course, our experiential learning subjects were more likely to be politically engaged, to have trust in individual politicians, to be more efficacious about citizens’ ability to impact politics, and to be more politically ambitious. [R]
76.2863 ROSNER, Em —
Reading key social scientific scholars of torture alongside literary theory and psychological studies of survivors provides important insights into how the long-term impacts of torture, including the fragmentation of identity and selfhood, can be seen as strategic tools of statecraft. In this conception, torture serves as a mode of survivor demobilization that continues after the direct experience of torture, thus allowing the influence of state discipline to extend insidiously beyond its immediate reach. Studying the lasting functions of torture from both psychological and geopolitical perspectives can expand the social scientific analysis of torture and provide a fuller understanding of its ongoing use by modern states. [R]
76.2864 SCHWARTZ, Joshua A. —
Given increasing nuclear-related dangers in the real world, which pose an existential threat to humanity, teaching nuclear theory to students is critically important. I argue that the hit TV show House of the Dragon can be utilized to educate students on the nuances of nuclear theory in a fun and engaging — but also surprisingly rigorous — way. In particular, the fire-breathing weapons of mass destruction in the Game of Thrones prequel show illustrate five key lessons about nuclear conflict dynamics. First, nuclear war is incredibly destructive and causes significant psychological trauma to survivors of nuclear attacks. Second, nuclear weapons can induce caution in leaders and deter major war. Third, while a powerful force, nuclear deterrence can fail due to irrational leaders, principle-agent problems, and accidents. Fourth, nuclear compellence is harder than nuclear deterrence and can backfire. Fifth, nuclear superiority beyond a secure second-strike capability provides little strategic benefit. In sum, House of the Dragon offers a more modern option than classics like Dr. Strangelove to teach about nuclear theory. [R]
76.2865 SHAPIRO, Jacob N. —
Large-scale, centrally funded measurement systems on the economy, education, the environment, and public health enable rapid scientific research and support robust policy feedback. They provide frameworks for assessing policy effectiveness, flagging emerging problems, and informing planning processes. The online information environment — a critical domain of human interaction — has not yet been similarly instrumented. This article first reviews key measurements in other domains and outlines why existing tools for studying online environments are insufficient. It then lays out the consequences of the measurement gap, identifies key data-collection tasks, discusses the scale of resources required to meet them, and addresses the implications of generative AI for the instrumentation task. I argue that modest but strategic investments in scaled measurement infrastructure could unlock transformative research capabilities and facilitate an evidence-driven approach to policymaking that could improve how we govern online spaces. [R] [See Abstr. 76.3357]
76.2866 SIMMONS, Erica S. ; RUSH SMITH, Nicholas —
Regardless of method, political scientists often seek to develop arguments that can be generalized to a population of cases. But is this the only way to think about how cases speak to one another? We advocate for a new way to think about how qualitative research produces broadly applicable insights: translation. Much like linguistic translation, the goal of translation in political science is to develop ideas that are intelligible in a different context, even as the context will change how an idea or political practice is interpreted or enacted. Translation offers at least three benefits. It allows us to (1) rethink how we form and deploy concepts; (2) rethink what a generalizable argument is by carrying parts of an argument, instead of entire causal chains to other cases; and (3) rethink how we conceptualize knowledge accumulation to include an abductive process where generating theory is the primary goal. [R]
76.2867 SMITH, Daniel Scott, et al. —
Tens of thousands of scientists contribute to peer review as journal editors and reviewers of the millions of manuscripts submitted every year. How do they decide what is quality work? What values do they apply in evaluating which science merits publication and which does not? How do they respond to dissensus and uncertainty? Who has the greatest influence over the final outcome? This study combines close reading with large language models to analyze 80,000 reviews of 28,000 accepted and rejected manuscripts in engineering and the life sciences. By following reviewers’ value judgments and editorial decisions, we come to a different view of how epistemic cultures are practiced in journal science. Instead of a consensual dialogue revealing salient norms, we find reviewers differently weigh (“commensurate”) their judgments to attribute value to works. Their pluralistic viewpoints elevate uncertainty about the work, and editors respond by aligning with the most negative of reviewers. Surprisingly, we observe engineers and life scientists find the same epistemic criteria are salient, valued, and influential, with novelty and accuracy being primary. These results underscore how contingency and uncertainty are structural features of STEM peer review and essential to its effectiveness and legitimacy. [R]
76.2868 STEIN, Matthew —
Over a decade ago Ishiyama, Miles, and Balarezo (2010) published their work on the pedagogical training opportunities for political science doctoral students in the United States. The authors surveyed PhD-granting political science departments and found that pedagogical training for doctoral students was scant. Despite its age, the work remains influential and cited by scholars concerned with the state of teachingtraining in the discipline. In this paper I uncover that little progress has been made in training opportunities for political science graduate students. Interviews with faculty in 66 PhD-granting departments reveal that less than a fifth of departments require students to complete creditbearing courses and a plurality require no pedagogical training. Several departments have outsourced pedagogical training and do not maintain data on student completion. As such, many graduate students remain inadequately prepared for careers in higher education. I conclude by echoing colleagues who call for increased attention on pedagogical training, and for a benefit structure rewarding high quality teaching. [R]
76.2869 STOCKEMER, Daniel ; SAWYER, Stephen W. —
When we open a random political science journal, we have a roughly two-to-one chance that the article is written by a man. Beyond this general finding, we know little about the gender gaps within political science knowledge production: Are women more represented in lower- or higherranked journals? Do they publish more single-authored or multi-authored papers? Do they publish more content in some fields than in others? This article answers these questions by analyzing an original dataset based on the International Political Science Abstracts (a peer-reviewed academic journal) from 2022 consisting of more than 7,000 articles and more than 13,000 authors in political science from around the world. We find no difference in the percentage of female authors between higher-and lower-ranked journals. We find a slightly higher propensity among women to publish in teams. Regarding subfields of study, women are particularly underrepresented in political theory, in which they publish only 21.6% of all published articles — which is an approximate 12-percentage-point deviation from the overall average. [R]
76.2870 TAUSANOVITCH, Chris ; HOLLIDAY, Derek E. —
Are people’s priorities associated with their income and education levels? There is a long history in political science of claims that priorities are driven by economic interests, but also that low-income and low-education people fail to prioritize their economic interests. In this paper we use measures of revealed importance from [Sides J, Tausanovitch C and Vavreck L (2023) The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the hallenge to American Democracy. Princeton University Press.] to evaluate the priorities of high- and low-income/education voters with respect to 44 different policies. It is well known that there are substantial differences in the preferences of people with lower incomes or education levels and people with higher incomes or education levels, but conditional on preferences we find very small differences among education and income groups in terms of priorities. Like high-income and high-education voters, lower-income and education voters care most about the major issues of the day. They do not care systematically more or less than other voters about policies that expand social welfare, redistribution, or labor rights. [R]
76.2871 TOLKSDORF, Farina L., et al. —
Transdisciplinary research (TDR) integrates academic and non-academic expertise to co-produce actionable knowledge that contributes to societal impact in addressing sustainability challenges. While context is widely acknowledged as important, the role and definition of context factors shaping TDR remain underexplored. This study develops an integrative understanding of context by synthesising theoretical literature and analysing 17 semi-structured interviews from international TDR case studies. We identify nine key context factors across three categories: outer factors (outside projects), inner factors (within projects), and temporal/ spatial dimensions (project boundaries). These context factors influence collaborative research processes in different ways across projects, requiring ongoing reflexivity and adaptation. Positionality awareness and ethics are central in shaping power dynamics, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge-co-production, highlighting the need for context-sensitive approaches. To support this in a structured way, we present a framework linking context with research design, process, methods and outcomes. Additionally, we provide a set of reflective questions for researchers and practitioners to identify, assess, and respond to contextual influences that shape stainability transformations. By advancing a more systematic understanding of context, this study contributes to building reflexive and inclusive approaches to transdisciplinary collaboration. [R]
76.2872 TRUONG, Mai —
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, scholars have debated whether digital fieldwork can effectively substitute for on-site field research. The prevailing view is that digital fieldwork is a last resort when in-person access is limited. Reflecting on my recent field research in Vietnam and Malaysia, I advocate for integrating digital and on-site fieldwork as complementary components of the research process. This approach is particularly valuable for scholars who are unable to spend extended periods in the field. The integrative approach helps researchers (1) prepare effectively for on-site fieldwork, (2) adapt the data collection process flexibly while in the field, and (3) continue data collection and maintain working relationships with local networks after leaving the field. Through this reflection, I encourage researchers to normalize the integration of both methodologies to leverage the strengths of each approach. [R]
76.2873 VIERUS, Paul ; ELIS, Jonas ; HÖHNE, Jan Karem —
Teaching empirical social research methods as a compulsory part of a curriculum involves several challenges. Students are often unaware of the relevance of methodological training for their political science education and its value as a transferable skill. In addition, some students are afraid of the mathematical components of their applied statistics training. These challenges can have a diminishing effect on student success. We examine three different perspectives of students’ satisfaction with methods courses at a large political science department in a German university. We describe temporal changes in student satisfaction over the course of a complete term (6 months) and use a set of independent variables to explain the outcomes. To do this, we fielded a longitudinal survey in five in-person methods and statistics courses during 2021/2022 after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. We demonstrate that statistics anxiety — the self-reported worries about getting lower grades, becoming nervous, or feeling helpless when solving tasks that focus on statistic — as a substantial negative effect both on student satisfaction and on their final grades. This clear pattern raises the question of how to optimally support students who exhibit high levels of negative emotions towards statistics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of course satisfaction in academic methodological training and can be used to improve the design of courses in order to significantly reduce failure and dropout rates. [R]
76.2874 WEIDMANN, Nils B. ; FAULBORN, Mats ; GARCÍA, David —
Current political developments worldwide illustrate that research on democratic backsliding is as important as ever. A recent exchange in Political Science & Politics (February 2024) highlighted again that the measurement of democracy remains a challenge. With many democracy indicators consisting of subjective assessments rather than factual observations, trends in democracy over time could be due to human biases in the coding of these indicators rather than empirical facts. This article leverages two cutting-edge Large Language Models (LLMs) for the coding of democracy indicators from the V-Dem project. With access to huge amounts of information, these models may be able to rate the many “soft” characteristics of regimes at substantially lower costs. Whereas LLM-generated codings largely align with expert coders for many countries, we show that when these models deviate from human assessments, they do so in different but consistent ways. Some LLMs are too pessimistic and others consistently overestimate the democratic quality of these countries. Although the combination of the two LLM codings can alleviate this concern, we conclude that it is difficult to replace human coders with LLMs because the extent and direction of these attitudes is not known a priori. [R]
76.2875 YAMAMOTO ROSENBAUM, Chika ; SASANUMA, Katsunobu ; YAMAMOTO, Masamichi —
The case method has increasingly become one of the most popular active learning techniques. However, empirical research on its effectiveness is predominantly focused on business fields in Western countries and is typically assessed using a few learning outcomes, with little consideration for students’ individual characteristics. This paper provides new empirical insights by examining the effect of various factors on Japanese students’ acquisition of knowledge and vital meta-skills in Politics and Law courses. Based on a survey conducted at a Japanese university, our analysis finds that students’ stress levels and interest in the course subject have a statistically significant impact on the acquisition of knowledge and all meta-skills. Other factors, such as experience, course preparation, and personality affect the acquisition of knowledge and some meta-skills. [R]