Research Methodology (DCC5230)
Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan, Spring 2017
Syllabus (updated: 2017-04-04)
Overview and Class Goals
This course is to help you design your thesis projects by addressing the fundamentals of research designs and methods in social sciences. The course covers a variety of issues—the selection of research topic, the articulation of research questions, the development of theory, the derivation of empirically testable hypotheses, and the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The course exposes you to various research approaches in social sciences, especially in political science.
By completing this course, you will be able to:
- Conduct scientific research, which is reproducible by other researchers.
- Identify theories, hypotheses, and methods used in social science research.
- Choose a method and apply it to your own research in order to answer your research questions.
- Analyze data and communicate the results in an appropriate fashion.
Required Books
- Baglione, Lisa A. 2016. Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods, Third Edition. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
- Toshkov, Dimiter. 2016. Research Design in Political Science. London: Palgrave Macmillan.