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Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods

Student resources, welcome to the sage edge site for writing a research paper in political science ..

The SAGE edge site for Writing a Research Paper in Political Science , Fourth Edition by Lisa A. Baglione offers a robust online environment you can access anytime, anywhere, and features an impressive array of free tools and resources to keep you on the cutting edge of your learning experience.

Even students capable of writing excellent essays still find their first major political science research paper an intimidating experience. Crafting the right research question, finding good sources, properly summarizing them, operationalizing concepts and designing good tests for their hypotheses, presenting and analyzing quantitative as well as qualitative data are all tough-going without a great deal of guidance and encouragement. Writing a Research Paper in Political Science breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students what they need to do at each stage to successfully complete each component until the paper is finished. Practical summaries, recipes for success, worksheets, exercises, and a series of handy checklists make this a must-have supplement for any writing-intensive political science course.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Lisa A. Baglione for writing an excellent text and creating the materials on this site.

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Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods

Student resources, welcome to the companion website.

Want your students to write their first major political science research paper with confidence? With this book, they can.  Author Lisa Baglione breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students precisely how to complete each component. The author provides encouragement at each stage and faces pitfalls head on, giving advice and examples so that students move through each task successfully. Students are shown how to craft the right research question, find good sources and properly summarize them, operationalize concepts, design good tests for their hypotheses, and present and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. Even writing an introduction, coming up with effective headings and titles, presenting a conclusion, and the important steps of editing and revising are covered with class-tested advice and know-how that’s received accolades from professors and students alike. Practical summaries, recipes for success, worksheets, exercises, and a series of handy checklists make this a must-have supplement for any writing-intensive political science course.

In this Third Edition of Writing a Research Paper in Political Science , updated sample research topics come from American government, gender studies, comparative politics, and international relations. Examples of actual student writing show readers how others "just like them" accomplished each stage of the process.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Lisa Baglione for writing an excellent text and developing the ancillaries on this site.

For instructors

Access resources that are only available to Faculty and Administrative Staff.

Want to explore the book further?

Order Review Copy

Political Science

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you to recognize and to follow writing standards in political science. The first step toward accomplishing this goal is to develop a basic understanding of political science and the kind of work political scientists do.

Defining politics and political science

Political scientist Harold Laswell said it best: at its most basic level, politics is the struggle of “who gets what, when, how.” This struggle may be as modest as competing interest groups fighting over control of a small municipal budget or as overwhelming as a military stand-off between international superpowers. Political scientists study such struggles, both small and large, in an effort to develop general principles or theories about the way the world of politics works. Think about the title of your course or re-read the course description in your syllabus. You’ll find that your course covers a particular sector of the large world of “politics” and brings with it a set of topics, issues, and approaches to information that may be helpful to consider as you begin a writing assignment. The diverse structure of political science reflects the diverse kinds of problems the discipline attempts to analyze and explain. In fact, political science includes at least eight major sub-fields:

• American politics examines political behavior and institutions in the United States.
• Comparative politics analyzes and compares political systems within and across different geographic regions.
• International relations investigates relations among nation states and the activities of international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and NATO, as well as international actors such as terrorists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multi-national corporations (MNCs).
• Political theory analyzes fundamental political concepts such as power and democracy and foundational questions, like “How should the individual and the state relate?”
• Political methodology deals with the ways that political scientists ask and investigate questions.
• Public policy examines the process by which governments make public decisions.
• Public administration studies the ways that government policies are implemented.
• Public law focuses on the role of law and courts in the political process.

What is scientific about political science?

Investigating relationships.

Although political scientists are prone to debate and disagreement, the majority view the discipline as a genuine science. As a result, political scientists generally strive to emulate the objectivity as well as the conceptual and methodological rigor typically associated with the so-called “hard” sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics). They see themselves as engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions. Based on these revelations, they attempt to state general principles about the way the world of politics works. Given these aims, it is important for political scientists’ writing to be conceptually precise, free from bias, and well-substantiated by empirical evidence. Knowing that political scientists value objectivity may help you in making decisions about how to write your paper and what to put in it.

Political theory is an important exception to this empirical approach. You can learn more about writing for political theory classes in the section “Writing in Political Theory” below.

Building theories

Since theory-building serves as the cornerstone of the discipline, it may be useful to see how it works. You may be wrestling with theories or proposing your own as you write your paper. Consider how political scientists have arrived at the theories you are reading and discussing in your course. Most political scientists adhere to a simple model of scientific inquiry when building theories. The key to building precise and persuasive theories is to develop and test hypotheses. Hypotheses are statements that researchers construct for the purpose of testing whether or not a certain relationship exists between two phenomena. To see how political scientists use hypotheses, and to imagine how you might use a hypothesis to develop a thesis for your paper, consider the following example. Suppose that we want to know whether presidential elections are affected by economic conditions. We could formulate this question into the following hypothesis:

“When the national unemployment rate is greater than 7 percent at the time of the election, presidential incumbents are not reelected.”

Collecting data

In the research model designed to test this hypothesis, the dependent variable (the phenomenon that is affected by other variables) would be the reelection of incumbent presidents; the independent variable (the phenomenon that may have some effect on the dependent variable) would be the national unemployment rate. You could test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables by collecting data on unemployment rates and the reelection of incumbent presidents and comparing the two sets of information. If you found that in every instance that the national unemployment rate was greater than 7 percent at the time of a presidential election the incumbent lost, you would have significant support for our hypothesis.

However, research in political science seldom yields immediately conclusive results. In this case, for example, although in most recent presidential elections our hypothesis holds true, President Franklin Roosevelt was reelected in 1936 despite the fact that the national unemployment rate was 17%. To explain this important exception and to make certain that other factors besides high unemployment rates were not primarily responsible for the defeat of incumbent presidents in other election years, you would need to do further research. So you can see how political scientists use the scientific method to build ever more precise and persuasive theories and how you might begin to think about the topics that interest you as you write your paper.

Clear, consistent, objective writing

Since political scientists construct and assess theories in accordance with the principles of the scientific method, writing in the field conveys the rigor, objectivity, and logical consistency that characterize this method. Thus political scientists avoid the use of impressionistic or metaphorical language, or language which appeals primarily to our senses, emotions, or moral beliefs. In other words, rather than persuade you with the elegance of their prose or the moral virtue of their beliefs, political scientists persuade through their command of the facts and their ability to relate those facts to theories that can withstand the test of empirical investigation. In writing of this sort, clarity and concision are at a premium. To achieve such clarity and concision, political scientists precisely define any terms or concepts that are important to the arguments that they make. This precision often requires that they “operationalize” key terms or concepts. “Operationalizing” simply means that important—but possibly vague or abstract—concepts like “justice” are defined in ways that allow them to be measured or tested through scientific investigation.

Fortunately, you will generally not be expected to devise or operationalize key concepts entirely on your own. In most cases, your professor or the authors of assigned readings will already have defined and/or operationalized concepts that are important to your research. And in the event that someone hasn’t already come up with precisely the definition you need, other political scientists will in all likelihood have written enough on the topic that you’re investigating to give you some clear guidance on how to proceed. For this reason, it is always a good idea to explore what research has already been done on your topic before you begin to construct your own argument. See our handout on making an academic argument .

Example of an operationalized term

To give you an example of the kind of rigor and objectivity political scientists aim for in their writing, let’s examine how someone might operationalize a term. Reading through this example should clarify the level of analysis and precision that you will be expected to employ in your writing. Here’s how you might define key concepts in a way that allows us to measure them.

We are all familiar with the term “democracy.” If you were asked to define this term, you might make a statement like the following:

“Democracy is government by the people.”

You would, of course, be correct—democracy is government by the people. But, in order to evaluate whether or not a particular government is fully democratic or is more or less democratic when compared with other governments, we would need to have more precise criteria with which to measure or assess democracy. For example, here are some criteria that political scientists have suggested are indicators of democracy:

• Freedom to form and join organizations
• Freedom of expression
• Right to vote
• Eligibility for public office
• Right of political leaders to compete for support
• Right of political leaders to compete for votes
• Alternative sources of information
• Free and fair elections
• Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preference

If we adopt these nine criteria, we now have a definition that will allow us to measure democracy empirically. Thus, if you want to determine whether Brazil is more democratic than Sweden, you can evaluate each country in terms of the degree to which it fulfills the above criteria.

What counts as good writing in political science?

While rigor, clarity, and concision will be valued in any piece of writing in political science, knowing the kind of writing task you’ve been assigned will help you to write a good paper. Two of the most common kinds of writing assignments in political science are the research paper and the theory paper.

Writing political science research papers

Your instructors use research paper assignments as a means of assessing your ability to understand a complex problem in the field, to develop a perspective on this problem, and to make a persuasive argument in favor of your perspective. In order for you to successfully meet this challenge, your research paper should include the following components:

• An introduction
• A problem statement
• A discussion of methodology
• A literature review
• A description and evaluation of your research findings
• A summary of your findings

Here’s a brief description of each component.

In the introduction of your research paper, you need to give the reader some basic background information on your topic that suggests why the question you are investigating is interesting and important. You will also need to provide the reader with a statement of the research problem you are attempting to address and a basic outline of your paper as a whole. The problem statement presents not only the general research problem you will address but also the hypotheses that you will consider. In the methodology section, you will explain to the reader the research methods you used to investigate your research topic and to test the hypotheses that you have formulated. For example, did you conduct interviews, use statistical analysis, rely upon previous research studies, or some combination of all of these methodological approaches?

Before you can develop each of the above components of your research paper, you will need to conduct a literature review. A literature review involves reading and analyzing what other researchers have written on your topic before going on to do research of your own. There are some very pragmatic reasons for doing this work. First, as insightful as your ideas may be, someone else may have had similar ideas and have already done research to test them. By reading what they have written on your topic, you can ensure that you don’t repeat, but rather learn from, work that has already been done. Second, to demonstrate the soundness of your hypotheses and methodology, you will need to indicate how you have borrowed from and/or improved upon the ideas of others.

By referring to what other researchers have found on your topic, you will have established a frame of reference that enables the reader to understand the full significance of your research results. Thus, once you have conducted your literature review, you will be in a position to present your research findings. In presenting these findings, you will need to refer back to your original hypotheses and explain the manner and degree to which your results fit with what you anticipated you would find. If you see strong support for your argument or perhaps some unexpected results that your original hypotheses cannot account for, this section is the place to convey such important information to your reader. This is also the place to suggest further lines of research that will help refine, clarify inconsistencies with, or provide additional support for your hypotheses. Finally, in the summary section of your paper, reiterate the significance of your research and your research findings and speculate upon the path that future research efforts should take.

Writing in political theory

Political theory differs from other subfields in political science in that it deals primarily with historical and normative, rather than empirical, analysis. In other words, political theorists are less concerned with the scientific measurement of political phenomena than with understanding how important political ideas develop over time. And they are less concerned with evaluating how things are than in debating how they should be. A return to our democracy example will make these distinctions clearer and give you some clues about how to write well in political theory.

Earlier, we talked about how to define democracy empirically so that it can be measured and tested in accordance with scientific principles. Political theorists also define democracy, but they use a different standard of measurement. Their definitions of democracy reflect their interest in political ideals—for example, liberty, equality, and citizenship—rather than scientific measurement. So, when writing about democracy from the perspective of a political theorist, you may be asked to make an argument about the proper way to define citizenship in a democratic society. Should citizens of a democratic society be expected to engage in decision-making and administration of government, or should they be satisfied with casting votes every couple of years?

In order to substantiate your position on such questions, you will need to pay special attention to two interrelated components of your writing: (1) the logical consistency of your ideas and (2) the manner in which you use the arguments of other theorists to support your own. First, you need to make sure that your conclusion and all points leading up to it follow from your original premises or assumptions. If, for example, you argue that democracy is a system of government through which citizens develop their full capacities as human beings, then your notion of citizenship will somehow need to support this broad definition of democracy. A narrow view of citizenship based exclusively or primarily on voting probably will not do. Whatever you argue, however, you will need to be sure to demonstrate in your analysis that you have considered the arguments of other theorists who have written about these issues. In some cases, their arguments will provide support for your own; in others, they will raise criticisms and concerns that you will need to address if you are going to make a convincing case for your point of view.

Drafting your paper

If you have used material from outside sources in your paper, be sure to cite them appropriately in your paper. In political science, writers most often use the APA or Turabian (a version of the Chicago Manual of Style) style guides when formatting references. Check with your instructor if they have not specified a citation style in the assignment. For more information on constructing citations, see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Although all assignments are different, the preceding outlines provide a clear and simple guide that should help you in writing papers in any sub-field of political science. If you find that you need more assistance than this short guide provides, refer to the list of additional resources below or make an appointment to see a tutor at the Writing Center.

Writing a Research Paper in Political Science A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods

• Lisa A. Baglione - Saint Joseph's University, USA

“I introduced Baglione’s book to my colleagues who advise students in our senior capstone projects, and now they are all using it. Students are being told to hang on to the book for later and are making good use of all its sections.”

“Students will be able to use Baglione’s book throughout their career on campus. It is especially helpful for students who are hesitant their about writing a research paper or struggling to find a suitable topic. The book walks through the research process and provides very helpful checklists to ensure students stay on the right track.” 

“One of the greatest difficulties students face when writing research papers is finding a good research question to guide the rest of the writing process. Baglione's text tackles that issue head on and does so quite well.”

“This is a very relatable book. The prose is accessible, there is little jargon, and the use of examples is perfect for an undergraduate audience.”

“Baglione offers an extremely practical and useful text for understanding the content and structure of a thesis-length research paper. For some students, the clear outlining of the sequential steps is most useful, while for others who have the basics down, it offers a broad view of the goals and long-term responsibilities for such a project.”

Lisa A. Baglione

Dr. Lisa A. Baglione is a professor in the

Department of Political Science and a member

of the International Relations Program at Saint

Joseph ’ s University in Philadelphia. Currently,

Dr. Baglione also serves as the co-director of the

Gender Studies Program.

During her career, Dr. Baglione has conducted

research in five areas, and while they

are varied, she has benefited from the ways that

insights from each have interwoven: negotiations

between adversaries, authoritarian transformation,

peacebuilding, gender in politics, and

pedagogy. She has published two other books, To

Agree or Not to Agree: Leadership, Bargaining, and

Arms Control with University of Michigan Press

and Writing a Research Paper in Political Science:

A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and

Methods , now in its fourth edition, with Sage.

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Books on Writing in Political Science

Style Manual for Political Science

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APSA Guide to Writing and Publishing

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• Using Microsoft Word for Dissertation This guide provides information that will help you use Microsoft Word 2010 and 2013 effectively for your dissertation. Topics include: formatting page numbers, using chapter templates, footnotes, images, and figures.

POLSC101: Introduction to Political Science

Research in political science.

This handout is designed to teach you how to conduct original political science research. While you won't be asked to write a research paper, this handout provides important information on the "scientific" approach used by political scientists. Pay particularly close attention to the section that answers the question "what is scientific about political science?"

If you were going to conduct research in biology or chemistry, what would you do? You would probably create a hypothesis, and then design an experiment to test your hypothesis. Based on the results of your experiment, you would draw conclusions. Political scientists follow similar procedures. Like a scientist who researches biology or chemistry, political scientists rely on objectivity, data, and procedure to draw conclusions. This article explains the process of operationalizing variables. Why is that an important step in social science research?

Defining politics and political science

Political scientist Harold Laswell said it best: at its most basic level, politics is the struggle of "who gets what, when, how". This struggle may be as modest as competing interest groups fighting over control of a small municipal budget or as overwhelming as a military stand-off between international superpowers. Political scientists study such struggles, both small and large, in an effort to develop general principles or theories about the way the world of politics works. Think about the title of your course or re-read the course description in your syllabus. You'll find that your course covers a particular sector of the large world of "politics" and brings with it a set of topics, issues, and approaches to information that may be helpful to consider as you begin a writing assignment. The diverse structure of political science reflects the diverse kinds of problems the discipline attempts to analyze and explain. In fact, political science includes at least eight major sub-fields:

• American politics examines political behavior and institutions in the United States.
• Comparative politics analyzes and compares political systems within and across different geographic regions.
• International relations investigates relations among nation-states and the activities of international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and NATO, as well as international actors such as terrorists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multi-national corporations (MNCs).
• Political theory analyzes fundamental political concepts such as power and democracy and foundational questions, like "How should the individual and the state relate?"
• Political methodology deals with the ways that political scientists ask and investigate questions.
• Public policy examines the process by which governments make public decisions.
• Public administration studies the ways that government policies are implemented.
• Public law focuses on the role of law and courts in the political process.

What is scientific about political science?

Investigating relationships

Although political scientists are prone to debate and disagreement, the majority view the discipline as a genuine science. As a result, political scientists generally strive to emulate the objectivity as well as the conceptual and methodological rigor typically associated with the so-called "hard" sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics). They see themselves as engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions. Based on these revelations, they attempt to state general principles about the way the world of politics works. Given these aims, it is important for political scientists' writing to be conceptually precise, free from bias, and well-substantiated by empirical evidence. Knowing that political scientists value objectivity may help you in making decisions about how to write your paper and what to put in it.

Political theory is an important exception to this empirical approach. You can learn more about writing for political theory classes in the section "Writing in Political Theory" below.

Building theories

Since theory-building serves as the cornerstone of the discipline, it may be useful to see how it works. You may be wrestling with theories or proposing your own as you write your paper. Consider how political scientists have arrived at the theories you are reading and discussing in your course. Most political scientists adhere to a simple model of scientific inquiry when building theories. The key to building precise and persuasive theories is to develop and test hypotheses. Hypotheses are statements that researchers construct for the purpose of testing whether or not a certain relationship exists between two phenomena. To see how political scientists use hypotheses, and to imagine how you might use a hypothesis to develop a thesis for your paper, consider the following example. Suppose that we want to know whether presidential elections are affected by economic conditions. We could formulate this question into the following hypothesis: "When the national unemployment rate is greater than 7 percent at the time of the election, presidential incumbents are not reelected".

Collecting data

In the research model designed to test this hypothesis, the dependent variable (the phenomenon that is affected by other variables) would be the reelection of incumbent presidents; the independent variable (the phenomenon that may have some effect on the dependent variable) would be the national unemployment rate. You could test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables by collecting data on unemployment rates and the reelection of incumbent presidents and comparing the two sets of information. If you found that in every instance that the national unemployment rate was greater than 7 percent at the time of a presidential election the incumbent lost, you would have significant support for our hypothesis.

However, research in political science seldom yields immediately conclusive results. In this case, for example, although in most recent presidential elections our hypothesis holds true, President Franklin Roosevelt was reelected in 1936 despite the fact that the national unemployment rate was 17%. To explain this important exception and to make certain that other factors besides high unemployment rates were not primarily responsible for the defeat of incumbent presidents in other election years, you would need to do further research. So you can see how political scientists use the scientific method to build ever more precise and persuasive theories and how you might begin to think about the topics that interest you as you write your paper.

Clear, consistent, objective writing

Since political scientists construct and assess theories in accordance with the principles of the scientific method, writing in the field conveys the rigor, objectivity, and logical consistency that characterize this method. Thus political scientists avoid the use of impressionistic or metaphorical language, or language which appeals primarily to our senses, emotions, or moral beliefs. In other words, rather than persuade you with the elegance of their prose or the moral virtue of their beliefs, political scientists persuade through their command of the facts and their ability to relate those facts to theories that can withstand the test of empirical investigation. In writing of this sort, clarity and concision are at a premium. To achieve such clarity and concision, political scientists precisely define any terms or concepts that are important to the arguments that they make. This precision often requires that they "operationalize" key terms or concepts. "Operationalizing" simply means that important – but possibly vague or abstract – concepts like "justice" are defined in ways that allow them to be measured or tested through scientific investigation.

Fortunately, you will generally not be expected to devise or operationalize key concepts entirely on your own. In most cases, your professor or the authors of assigned readings will already have defined and/or operationalized concepts that are important to your research. And in the event that someone hasn't already come up with precisely the definition you need, other political scientists will in all likelihood have written enough on the topic that you're investigating to give you some clear guidance on how to proceed. For this reason, it is always a good idea to explore what research has already been done on your topic before you begin to construct your own argument. (See our handout on making an academic argument.)

Example of an operationalized term

To give you an example of the kind of "rigor" and "objectivity" political scientists aim for in their writing, let's examine how someone might operationalize a term. Reading through this example should clarify the level of analysis and precision that you will be expected to employ in your writing. Here's how you might define key concepts in a way that allows us to measure them.

We are all familiar with the term "democracy". If you were asked to define this term, you might make a statement like the following: "Democracy is government by the people". You would, of course, be correct – democracy is government by the people. But, in order to evaluate whether or not a particular government is fully democratic or is more or less democratic when compared with other governments, we would need to have more precise criteria with which to measure or assess democracy. Most political scientists agree that these criteria should include the following rights and freedoms for citizens:

• Freedom to form and join organizations
• Freedom of expression
• Right to vote
• Eligibility for public office
• Right of political leaders to compete for support
• Right of political leaders to compete for votes
• Alternative sources of information
• Free and fair elections
• Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preference

By adopting these nine criteria, we now have a definition that will allow us to measure democracy. Thus, if you want to determine whether Brazil is more democratic than Sweden, you can evaluate each country in terms of the degree to which it fulfills the above criteria.

What counts as good writing in political science?

While rigor, clarity, and concision will be valued in any piece of writing in political science, knowing the kind of writing task you've been assigned will help you to write a good paper. Two of the most common kinds of writing assignments in political science are the research paper and the theory paper.

Writing political science research papers

Your instructors use research paper assignments as a means of assessing your ability to understand a complex problem in the field, to develop a perspective on this problem, and to make a persuasive argument in favor of your perspective. In order for you to successfully meet this challenge, your research paper should include the following components: (1) an introduction, (2) a problem statement, (3) a discussion of methodology, (4) a literature review, (5) a description and evaluation of your research findings, and (6) a summary of your findings. Here's a brief description of each component.

In the introduction of your research paper, you need to give the reader some basic background information on your topic that suggests why the question you are investigating is interesting and important. You will also need to provide the reader with a statement of the research problem you are attempting to address and a basic outline of your paper as a whole. The problem statement presents not only the general research problem you will address but also the hypotheses that you will consider. In the methodology section, you will explain to the reader the research methods you used to investigate your research topic and to test the hypotheses that you have formulated. For example, did you conduct interviews, use statistical analysis, rely upon previous research studies, or some combination of all of these methodological approaches?

Before you can develop each of the above components of your research paper, you will need to conduct a literature review. A literature review involves reading and analyzing what other researchers have written on your topic before going on to do research of your own. There are some very pragmatic reasons for doing this work. First, as insightful as your ideas may be, someone else may have had similar ideas and have already done research to test them. By reading what they have written on your topic, you can ensure that you don't repeat, but rather learn from, work that has already been done. Second, to demonstrate the soundness of your hypotheses and methodology, you will need to indicate how you have borrowed from and/or improved upon the ideas of others.

By referring to what other researchers have found on your topic, you will have established a frame of reference that enables the reader to understand the full significance of your research results. Thus, once you have conducted your literature review, you will be in a position to present your research findings. In presenting these findings, you will need to refer back to your original hypotheses and explain the manner and degree to which your results fit with what you anticipated you would find. If you see strong support for your argument or perhaps some unexpected results that your original hypotheses cannot account for, this section is the place to convey such important information to your reader. This is also the place to suggest further lines of research that will help refine, clarify inconsistencies with, or provide additional support for your hypotheses. Finally, in the summary section of your paper, reiterate the significance of your research and your research findings and speculate upon the path that future research efforts should take.

Writing in political theory

Political theory differs from other subfields in political science in that it deals primarily with historical and normative, rather than empirical, analysis. In other words, political theorists are less concerned with the scientific measurement of political phenomena than with understanding how important political ideas develop over time. And they are less concerned with evaluating how things are than in debating how they should be. A return to our democracy example will make these distinctions clearer and give you some clues about how to write well in political theory.

Earlier, we talked about how to define democracy empirically so that it can be measured and tested in accordance with scientific principles. Political theorists also define democracy, but they use a different standard of measurement. Their definitions of democracy reflect their interest in political ideals – for example, liberty, equality, and citizenship – rather than scientific measurement. So, when writing about democracy from the perspective of a political theorist, you may be asked to make an argument about the proper way to define citizenship in a democratic society. Should citizens of a democratic society be expected to engage in decision-making and administration of government, or should they be satisfied with casting votes every couple of years?

In order to substantiate your position on such questions, you will need to pay special attention to two interrelated components of your writing: (1) the logical consistency of your ideas and (2) the manner in which you use the arguments of other theorists to support your own. First, you need to make sure that your conclusion and all points leading up to it follow from your original premises or assumptions. If, for example, you argue that democracy is a system of government through which citizens develop their full capacities as human beings, then your notion of citizenship will somehow need to support this broad definition of democracy. A narrow view of citizenship based exclusively or primarily on voting probably will not do. Whatever you argue, however, you will need to be sure to demonstrate in your analysis that you have considered the arguments of other theorists who have written about these issues. In some cases, their arguments will provide support for your own; in others, they will raise criticisms and concerns that you will need to address if you are going to make a convincing case for your point of view.

Drafting your paper

If you have used material from outside sources in your paper, be sure to cite them appropriately in your paper. In political science, writers most often use the APA or Turabian (a version of the Chicago Manual of Style) style guides when formatting references. Check with your instructor if he or she has not specified a citation style in the assignment. For more information on constructing citations, see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Although all assignments are different, the preceding outlines provide a clear and simple guide that should help you in writing papers in any sub-field of political science. If you find that you need more assistance than this short guide provides, refer to the list of additional resources below or make an appointment to see a tutor at the Writing Center.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing the original version of this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout's topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find the latest publications on this topic. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Becker, Howard S. 1986. Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Cuba, Lee. 2002. A Short Guide to Writing about Social Science , Fourth Edition. New York: Longman.

Lasswell, Harold Dwight. 1936. Politics: Who Gets What, When, How . New York, London: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, inc.

Scott, Gregory M. and Stephen M. Garrison. 1998. The Political Science Student Writer's Manual , Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers , Theses, and Dissertations, Sixth Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

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How to Write a Political Science Research Paper

Overview of a political science research paper.

Writing political science research papers could be an interesting endeavor, and a challenging one at the same time. Generally, research papers in the political science field adopt the approach common to social sciences.

You are required to apply the course acquired knowledge in resolving contemporary issues in the society.

It also demands the demonstration of different skills, including  steps for to writing a research paper . 

Structure of a Good Political Science Research Paper  

Political science research papers should assume the general structure of a research paper usually adopted by majority of the social sciences. This structure should be as illustrated below.

a) Introduction:  This part should encompass the background of the study and should clearly stipulate the motivation behind the research query. Such a background is supposed to focus on the history of the issue under study from its emergence to the current state.

The introduction should also help paint a general picture of what the research study is going to explore.  It should as well contain the thesis statement or research question(s) guiding the study.

b) Literature Review:  In political science research papers, the literature review part plays an important role in exploring the relevant research gap.

In this, it seeks to understand the relationship between various past incidences and the issue under study.

You should therefore explore the various bodies of existing knowledge as well as the prevailing political environment.  

In so doing, this section should lay a solid theoretical foundation for the study.

c) Methodology:  This section defines important guidelines on how to write a political science research paper. It stipulates the processes and techniques used in realizing the research study results.

Per se, the section covers important elements of the research paper, including study design, research population, sampling technique, data collection, and data analysis.

It is important to note that for the paper to be deemed scientific, it must provide for the processes through which other researchers can validate the study results.

d) Results:  This section deals with the presentation of the research results. Particularly, data collected is sorted and tabulated to form logical patterns.

No discussions are made in this section.

Tables and graphs should be a critical part of this section.

The entailed tables and graphs should be clearly labeled, ensuring that they have the correct units for the readers to understand the respective data. 

e) Discussions:  In political science research papers, this section endeavors to relate the derived research results to the study thesis.

It seeks to explain how the results helped resolve the study problem.

As such, you should use the data to develop patterns that advance arguments highlighted in the thesis statement.

You should also note possible differences between derived patterns and the research expectations. 

f) Conclusion:  This section entails a summary of the main points in the research paper. It as well makes a statement on how the research study solved the research problem.

Principally, the conclusion should merge the research results and the research objectives. It could also suggest new areas for future research. 

g) References:  This section includes all the resources used in the research study. It should comply with the format provided in the political science research paper instructions.

You should understand that this section is quite essential in ensuring that your work remains authentic.

Borrowed data must be effectively acknowledged.   

Steps on how to Write a Political Science Research Paper

In political science, the process of writing a research paper should include the below steps:

a) Selecting research paper topic : This is a critical step in shaping your research paper. Selecting the research topic should be done through a general reading on issues in area of interest.

You should make sure that you select a topic that is interesting to you. Also, the topic area should have adequate resources to ensure exhaustive exploration.

b) Developing the research question:  This step is quite important in writing political science research papers. It helps determine what issues you should seek to resolve or address in your research paper.

c) Coming up with the research design : in this step, you are required to explore the kind of data that is essential in answering the research question(s) and the processes of acquiring such data.

Such data is usually qualitative or quantitative. As such, you should conduct an evaluation on the tools that are most appropriate in collecting the respective data.  

d) Developing the thesis : This entails coming up with argument(s) to be advanced in the political science research paper. After conducting a preliminary study on your research topic, you are required to come up with a major argument to be advanced in your research study.

This argument is usually later revised to streamline it with available data and derived themes.  

Notably, the thesis should be serious and important, contestable, and bring forward a particular claim.

e) Collecting and analyzing data:  This entails collecting and analyzing secondary and primary data. Data should be collected and analyzed to form logical patterns/themes.

In this step, you should appropriately cite all the secondary data used.

f)   Compiling data : This step entails putting the collected data together to form a lucid argument(s) supporting the political science research paper thesis.

You should ensure that personal opinions and information that do not support the thesis is not included.

g) Referencing : This step involves compiling all the resources used in writing the paper. You should ensure that the provided referencing format is followed to the latter.

h) Proofreading : This step entails going through the paper severally, to ensure that it adheres to all relevant instructions, it is devoid of mistakes, and it is coherent. 

You should reread your work at least twice to help eliminate all possible mistakes.

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Citation Help

If you just want information on how a certain style is organized, the UGA Libraries keep  Citation Style Guide  web pages with examples of how to cite the most common types of resources using the most common styles (APA, Chicago, MLA, and more!)

The APA Style Blog is an amazing resource for students using APA

The MLA Style Center is available for examples of how to cite in MLA

If you are using Turabian (which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style),  here is a quick guide .

Chicago Manual of Style

If you're using the Chicago Manual of Style (Author-Date) or Footnotes, you can access the entire manual online through GALILEO:  http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=mlal-uga1&inst=uga1

If you want a brief overview of Chicago, we have citation style pages which the Libraries' have made for quick questions about a style:

http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/chicagostyle.pdf

Reading Scientific Papers

Reading scholarly research can be hard.  Here is a "bad" paper broken down by a scientist :  "Does Splenda cause cancer?"

"10 steps for evaluating scientific papers"

Analyzing Journal Articles

Citation Management at UGA

Endnote and Refworks are the two citation managers we provide at UGA. They can be used to input citations into your Word documents and also to format your works cited page for your research papers all at the same time. The best part is they do this automatically for almost any citation style you could need !

Endnote is installed on one computer, and is downloaded directly to your computer.  All of your research citations and affiliated filmes would be saved to that computer.  If you like to keep all your research (including all pdfs, slideshows, etc) in one place (a laptop for example), then Endnote would be a good option.  Because it is a downloaded software, however, it does have a steeper learning curve for first time users.

RefWorks is a web-based service which allows you to access all of your research from any device with access to the internet (mobile devices, computers, etc.).  If you like the flexibility of the cloud and the ability to share your research with anyone, then RefWorks would be a good option.  As it is a cloud based solution, RefWorks is slightly easier to learn.  If you feel Endnote is too complex for you, RefWorks might be a better option.

• Create Endnote Account
• Create Refworks Account

If you want to learn more about either CMS, please take a look at our Citation Management Guide!

I am available to train you in either, so feel free to email or call me to set up a training session.  Both softwares are incredibly powerful, and are indispensible research tools.  I highly recommend integrating a citation management software into your research process.

Annotated Bibliographies

OWL @ Purdue has a great site about how to write an Annotated Bibliography

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "References" or "Works Cited" depending on the style format you are using. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

Elements of a good Annotated Bibliography:

1) Bibliography according to the appropriate citation style (MLA, APA, CBE/CSE, etc.). 2) Explanation of main points and/or purpose of the work—basically, its thesis—which shows among other things that you have read and thoroughly understand the source. 3) Verification or critique of the authority or qualifications of the author. 4) Comments on the worth, effectiveness, and usefulness of the work in terms of both the topic being researched and/or your own research project. Source:  UNC Writing Center - Annotated Bibliography

• Sample Annotated Bibliography
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Writing Literature Reviews

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

Literature reviews contain the following parts:

Introduction :  Explain why this research topic is important. 

Body :  Present your summaries and evaluations of the sources.  Your review must not look like an annotated bibliography (i.e. a list of sources with summaries attached).  Instead, your references in your literature review must appear related to each other.  You will be comparing and contrasting methodologies, conclusions, and importance of the research to the study of your topic (and by extension your profession).  You will be adding your own original analysis of the research presented based on your understanding of what has been published on your topic.

Ensure your final list of references includes all sources you’ve discussed.

Sometimes starting with an annotated bibliography can help you practice summary and evaluation of a specific article.  Then write your literature based on what you've learned.

If you've never written a Literature Review, or would like a refresher, UNC's Writing Center has a great explanation of the process, and UNC Charlotte addresses doing literature reviews in political science and public administration.

UNC Writing Center:  "Literature Reviews"

A guide to writing literature reviews in Political Science and Public Administration.

Purdue Owl "Writing a literature review."

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students from NC State University Libraries on Vimeo .

Citing Data

When you use numeric datasets or a prepared statistical table you must cite where you retrieved the information.  To cite data or statistical tables you should include:

• Author or creator  - the person(s), organization, issuing agency or agencies responsible for creating the dataset
• Date of publication  - the year the dataset was published, posted or otherwise released to the public (not the date of the subject matter).
• Title or description  - complete title  or  if no title exists, you must create a brief description of the data, including time period covered in the data if applicable
• Publisher   - entity (organization, database, archive, journal) responsible for hosting the data 
• URL or DOI   - the unique identifier if the data set is online

Citing data in APA:

I. Data sets:

Author/Rightsholder, A. A. (Year).  Title of publication or data set  (Version number if available) [Data File]. Retrieved from (or available from) http://xxxx

The title of the data set should be italicized unless the data set is included as part of a larger work or volume

Example:  United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2008). Indiana income limits  [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.huduser.org/Datasets/IL/IL08/in_fy2008.pdf

Example of Table generated from an interactive data set (like in Social Explorer):

Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce (2013).  U.S. Direct Investment Abroad, All U.S. Parent Companies 2009-2010 . [Data file].  Available from BEA.gov/iTable 

II. Table from a publication 

Author. (Year). Title of entry. In Editor (Edition),  Title of publication  (pp. xxx-xxx). Retrieved from http:// OR Location: Publisher OR doi:xxxx.

Example: 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2005). [Interactive map showing percentage of respondents reporting "no" to, During the past month, did you participate in any physical activities?]. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Retrieved from http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/gisbrfss/default.aspx

The title of the data set should be italicized  unless the data set is included as part of a larger work or volume , as in the example above.  

Citing tables in Chicago

Chicago doesn't specifically give you instructions on how to cite tables, so here are examples of how to do it based on other items you cite in Chicago.

You would use (Author Date) parenthetical citations like you normally would, make sure they match up with your bibliography.

1) If the info is from a website or database, you'll basically follow the documentation for that type, with the title of the table being the title in the citation.  You may put information at the end of the citation about the table.

For example, 

World Bank. An Author. "Really important table." Accessed August 25, 2014. URL.

2) If you are pulling a table out of a larger work, like a book or article, you would list the name of the title at the end of the citation.

For example,

Author, An.  Title of book/article.  Publication information , Year. Table 2.17, "Why everything is awesome."

3) If you get a table which was reproduced in a paper or book or website, and the author is NOT the person who originally compiled the data, you will have to cite both.

Author, An.   Title of document where you found the information.   Publication information, year. Table 3.1, citing the source as John Doe.  Title of original data or table source.  Publication information, year.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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LLMs now write lots of science. Good

• Easier and more lucid writing will make science faster and better

Many people are busily experimenting with chatbots in the hope that generative artificial intelligence (AI) can improve their daily lives. Scientists, brainy as they are, are several steps ahead. As we report, 10% or more of abstracts for papers in scientific journals now appear to be written at least in part by large language models. In fields such as computer science that figure rises to 20%. Among Chinese computer scientists, it is a third.

Some see this enthusiastic adoption as a mistake. They fear that vast quantities of poor-quality papers will introduce biases, boost plagiarism and jam the machinery of scientific publication. Some journals, including the Science family, are imposing onerous disclosure requirements on the use of llms. Such attempts are futile and misguided. llms cannot easily be policed. Even if they could be, many scientists find that their use brings real benefits.

Research scientists are not just devoted to laboratory work or thinking big thoughts. They face great demands on their time, from writing papers and teaching to filling out endless grant applications. LLMs help by speeding up the writing of papers, thereby freeing up time for scientists to develop new ideas, collaborate or check for mistakes in their work.

The technology can also help level a playing-field that is tilted towards native English speakers, because many of the prestigious journals are in their tongue. LLMs can help those who do not speak the language well to translate and edit their text. Thanks to LLMs, scientists everywhere should be able to disseminate their findings more easily, and be judged by the brilliance of their ideas and ingeniousness of their research, rather than their skill in avoiding dangling modifiers.

As with any technology, there are worries. Because llms make it easier to produce professional-sounding text, they will make it easier to generate bogus scientific papers. Science received 10,444 submissions last year, of which 83% were rejected before peer review. Some of these are bound to have been ai-generated fantasies.

LLMs could also export, through their words, the cultural environment in which they were trained. Their lack of imagination may spur inadvertent plagiarism, in which they directly copy past work by humans. “Hallucinations" that are obviously wrong to experts, but very believable to everyone else, could also make their way into the text. And most worrying of all, writing can be an integral part of the research process, by helping researchers clarify and formulate their own ideas. An excessive reliance on llms could therefore make science poorer.

Trying to restrict the use of LLMs is not the way to deal with these problems. In the future they are rapidly going to become more prevalent and more powerful. They are already embedded in word processors and other software, and will soon be as common as spell-checkers. Researchers tell surveys that they see the benefits of generative AI not just for writing papers but for coding and doing administrative tasks. And crucially, their use cannot easily be detected. Although journals can impose all the burdensome disclosure requirements they like, it would not help, because they cannot tell when their rules have been broken. Journals such as Science should abandon detailed disclosures for the use of llms as a writing tool, beyond a simple acknowledgment.

Science already has many defences against fabrication and plagiarism. In a world where the cost of producing words falls to nothing, these must become stronger still. Peer review, for instance, will become even more important in a gen-ai world. It must be beefed up accordingly, perhaps by paying reviewers for the time they sacrifice to scrutinise papers. There should also be more incentives for researchers to replicate experiments. Hiring and promotion committees at universities should ensure that scientists are rewarded based on the quality of their work and the quantityof new insights they generate. Curb the potential for misuse, and scientists have plenty to gain from their llm amanuenses.

© 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com

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• Prof. Erik Lin-Greenberg

Departments

• Political Science

As Taught In

• International Relations
• Security Studies

Learning Resource Types

U.s. national security policy, policy memorandum project.

For this project you will take on the role of government officials and write policy memorandums to President Biden following a hypothetical attack on U.S. citizens in Afghanistan. The memorandums should be similar in format to John Yoo’s “ The President’s Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations Against Terrorists and Nation’s Supporting Them ” or Harold Koh’s written testimony on Libya (PDF) , but need not be nearly as long.

When writing, please take on the position and tone of the organization you are representing.

The memos should be between 1250–2000 words and should be submitted by 11:59 pm on the date of Class 13. Please ensure all group member names are listed.

Early in the morning on Saturday, September 30, 2023, twelve aid workers operating a medical clinic outside the city of Herat in western Afghanistan were brutally assaulted and murdered. Cell phone footage of the blindfolded aid workers being led through the streets before being executed has been widely broadcast on international media. The medical clinic was operated by an Arkansas-based humanitarian organization, Good Samaritan’s Hospitals. Among the twelve aid workers killed were eight American citizens, three French citizens, and a British citizen. Good Samaritan’s Hospitals is one of a relatively few international aid organizations that continued delivering services in Afghanistan after the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan Government in August 2021. Since 2021, Taliban fighters have frequently harassed the aid workers, and in 2022 forced the group to withdraw all women employees. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Good Samaritan’s Hospitals continued providing care to Afghans at four hospitals throughout the country, but also increasingly called on the Taliban government to rescind their ban on women working for aid agencies.

Although the Taliban has publicly blamed the killings on ISIS-K, the U.S. Intelligence Community assesses with high confidence that Taliban officials were responsible for the attack. Sensitive intelligence reporting indicates that Noor Mohammad Islamjar, the Taliban governor of Herat province, ordered the operation. He was reportedly angered by Good Samaritan’s increasingly vocal criticism of the Taliban government.

At 7 pm on Sunday, October 1, President Biden issued a brief statement condemning the Taliban’s brutal act of violence and pledged to hold those responsible accountable. He also directed the National Security Council to begin preparing military and non-military options to respond.

Public opinion toward intervention across the United States is mixed. There is strong public opposition to retaliatory operations in the UK. France and the United Kingdom have condemned the violence, while China’s ambassador to the UN has called the United States to “avoid worsening the fragile security conditions.”

Group Assignments

Each group has three students, with the exception of Groups 1A and 1B, which have four.

Groups 1A/1B

You are officials in the U.S. Department of Justice where you work on national security and terrorism issues. The White House has requested legal advice from the Attorney General on the legality of use of force in this case. Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed your team to write the assessment. Specifically, your office is to provide its views on the president’s authorities to use force to prevent or deter additional threats against U.S. citizens in Afghanistan. Ensure your legal note draws from the U.S. Constitution, statutes and/or other Congressional authorizations on the use of force, and precedent.

Groups 2A/2B

You are staffers for a bipartisan group of senators who are firmly opposed to the use of military force in this instance. The senators you work for are concerned that launching military operations is a slippery slope that could lead to the reintroduction of U.S. ground forces into Afghanistan, and would shift attention and resources away from balancing against a rising China and confronting Russian aggression in Ukraine. Your bosses have asked you to draft a joint memorandum that they will send to President Biden explaining the political risks of launching any military operations. They have asked you to ensure the letter makes the argument that Congressional approval would be necessary to launch operations—and that this Congressional support isn’t guaranteed, especially in today’s contentious political climate. Doing nothing, however, is not an option as American interests are at stake—so your memo should offer some plausible policy recommendations for President Biden to consider.

Groups 3A/3B

You are staffers for Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). There is strong demand among your constituents for retaliatory action that avenges the death of their fellow Arkansans. Your office has previously been quite critical of the Biden administration’s foreign policy, yet Senator Cotton supports the administration’s plans to launch military operations. Senator Cotton has asked your team to write a letter to President Biden encouraging him to launch retaliatory military actions. Senator Cotton has asked that the memo outline the president’s authority to do this (and how Senator Cotton’s office might be able to assist in garnering Congressional support) and highlight the political/strategic benefits of launching the operation. Although Senator Cotton desires a strong response, he is strongly opposed to a long-term U.S. ground footprint in Afghanistan.

Groups 4A/4B

You are National Security Council staff members detailed from the Department of Defense, Department of State,    Department of Treasury, and the Intelligence Community. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has directed your team to begin identifying potential response options (both military and non-military) to present to President Biden. You are aware that there is political opposition to military retaliation (both among the domestic public and among close allies), but also recognize that failure to take a strong stance could have reputational consequences for the United States and fail to deter future attacks on U.S. citizens. Provide the president with at least three response options. These response options can leverage any element of U.S. power (diplomacy, military, information, economic). Draw from course material and outside research of past cases when developing your recommendations.

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Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods [WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER IN-2E] [Paperback] Paperback – January 1, 2011

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A new ‘AI scientist’ can write science papers without any human input. Here’s why that’s a problem

Dean, School of Computing Technologies, RMIT University, RMIT University

Disclosure statement

Karin Verspoor receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and Elsevier BV. She is affiliated with BioGrid Australia and is a co-founder of the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.

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Scientific discovery is one of the most sophisticated human activities. First, scientists must understand the existing knowledge and identify a significant gap. Next, they must formulate a research question and design and conduct an experiment in pursuit of an answer. Then, they must analyse and interpret the results of the experiment, which may raise yet another research question.

Can a process this complex be automated? Last week, Sakana AI Labs announced the creation of an “AI scientist” – an artificial intelligence system they claim can make scientific discoveries in the area of machine learning in a fully automated way.

Using generative large language models (LLMs) like those behind ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, the system can brainstorm, select a promising idea, code new algorithms, plot results, and write a paper summarising the experiment and its findings, complete with references. Sakana claims the AI tool can undertake the complete lifecycle of a scientific experiment at a cost of just US$15 per paper – less than the cost of a scientist’s lunch.

These are some big claims. Do they stack up? And even if they do, would an army of AI scientists churning out research papers with inhuman speed really be good news for science?

How a computer can ‘do science’

A lot of science is done in the open, and almost all scientific knowledge has been written down somewhere (or we wouldn’t have a way to “know” it). Millions of scientific papers are freely available online in repositories such as arXiv and PubMed .

LLMs trained with this data capture the language of science and its patterns. It is therefore perhaps not at all surprising that a generative LLM can produce something that looks like a good scientific paper – it has ingested many examples that it can copy.

What is less clear is whether an AI system can produce an interesting scientific paper. Crucially, good science requires novelty.

But is it interesting?

Scientists don’t want to be told about things that are already known. Rather, they want to learn new things, especially new things that are significantly different from what is already known. This requires judgement about the scope and value of a contribution.

The Sakana system tries to address interestingness in two ways. First, it “scores” new paper ideas for similarity to existing research (indexed in the Semantic Scholar repository). Anything too similar is discarded.

Second, Sakana’s system introduces a “peer review” step – using another LLM to judge the quality and novelty of the generated paper. Here again, there are plenty of examples of peer review online on sites such as openreview.net that can guide how to critique a paper. LLMs have ingested these, too.

AI may be a poor judge of AI output

Feedback is mixed on Sakana AI’s output. Some have described it as producing “ endless scientific slop ”.

Even the system’s own review of its outputs judges the papers weak at best. This is likely to improve as the technology evolves, but the question of whether automated scientific papers are valuable remains.

The ability of LLMs to judge the quality of research is also an open question. My own work (soon to be published in Research Synthesis Methods ) shows LLMs are not great at judging the risk of bias in medical research studies, though this too may improve over time.

Sakana’s system automates discoveries in computational research, which is much easier than in other types of science that require physical experiments. Sakana’s experiments are done with code, which is also structured text that LLMs can be trained to generate.

AI tools to support scientists, not replace them

AI researchers have been developing systems to support science for decades. Given the huge volumes of published research, even finding publications relevant to a specific scientific question can be challenging.

Specialised search tools make use of AI to help scientists find and synthesise existing work. These include the above-mentioned Semantic Scholar, but also newer systems such as Elicit , Research Rabbit , scite and Consensus .

Text mining tools such as PubTator dig deeper into papers to identify key points of focus, such as specific genetic mutations and diseases, and their established relationships. This is especially useful for curating and organising scientific information.

Machine learning has also been used to support the synthesis and analysis of medical evidence, in tools such as Robot Reviewer . Summaries that compare and contrast claims in papers from Scholarcy help to perform literature reviews.

All these tools aim to help scientists do their jobs more effectively, not to replace them.

AI research may exacerbate existing problems

While Sakana AI states it doesn’t see the role of human scientists diminishing, the company’s vision of “a fully AI-driven scientific ecosystem” would have major implications for science.

One concern is that, if AI-generated papers flood the scientific literature, future AI systems may be trained on AI output and undergo model collapse . This means they may become increasingly ineffectual at innovating.

However, the implications for science go well beyond impacts on AI science systems themselves.

There are already bad actors in science, including “paper mills” churning out fake papers . This problem will only get worse when a scientific paper can be produced with US$15 and a vague initial prompt.

The need to check for errors in a mountain of automatically generated research could rapidly overwhelm the capacity of actual scientists. The peer review system is arguably already broken , and dumping more research of questionable quality into the system won’t fix it.

Science is fundamentally based on trust. Scientists emphasise the integrity of the scientific process so we can be confident our understanding of the world (and now, the world’s machines) is valid and improving.

A scientific ecosystem where AI systems are key players raises fundamental questions about the meaning and value of this process, and what level of trust we should have in AI scientists. Is this the kind of scientific ecosystem we want?

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How to Write Certificate for Project Class 12 CBSE

Table of Contents

Certificate for Project Class 12: A certificate is a formal document that recognizes and acknowledges an individual’s achievements or accomplishments. In the context of Class 12 projects, certificates serve as a valuable way to honor students for their hard work, dedication, and innovative ideas. These certificates not only provide a tangible reward but also serve as a source of motivation and encouragement for future endeavors.

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What is Certificate for Project Class 12

Writing a certificate for a school project in Class 12 involves creating a formal document that acknowledges the student’s hard work and successful completion of their project. This certificate should include key elements such as the project title, the student’s name, and the school’s endorsement. It’s important to use clear and professional language, ensuring the certificate reflects the academic achievement and dedication demonstrated by the student. Crafting a well-structured certificate adds value to the student’s academic record and provides official recognition for their efforts.

Certificate for Project Class 12 Samples

Sample 1: This is to certify that (Student’s Name) of Class XII has successfully completed the (Subject Name) project titled (Title of the Project) under the guidance of (Teacher’s Name) for the academic year (School Year). The project represents the student’s own work and reflects their dedication and thorough research on the subject. The student has met all the requirements and deadlines, making this project eligible for evaluation by the school.

Teacher’s Signature Date

This certificate is proudly presented to [Student’s Name] for demonstrating outstanding dedication and excellence in completing the [Project Title] as part of the Class 12 curriculum. Your exceptional effort, creativity, and commitment to producing high-quality work have set a remarkable standard.

We recognize your hard work and appreciate your contribution to the project, which has greatly enriched our learning environment.

Congratulations on your outstanding achievement!

Sample 3: It is hereby certified that (Student’s Name) of Class XII has completed the project titled (Title of the Project) in the subject of (Subject Name) to the satisfaction of (School Name). The project was developed under the guidance of (Teacher’s Name) during the academic year (School Year). The student demonstrated significant effort, attention to detail, and adherence to the project timeline, making this work suitable for evaluation.

Certificate for Project Class 12 English

This is to certify that the project titled “The Role of Symbolism in Modern Literature” submitted by Anjali Sharma of class XII for the subject of English is her original work, presented to ABC Senior Secondary School for partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. I guided and supervised the project. Anjali Sharma has demonstrated sincere effort throughout the project. I affirm that the project meets the necessary standards and is suitable for submission.

Teacher’s Signature | Student’s Signature

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• Article Writing Class 12
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• Acknowledgement Project for Class 12

Certificate for Project Class 12 Hindi

This is to certify that the project titled “प्रेमचंद की कहानियों में ग्रामीण जीवन का चित्रण” submitted by Ravi Kumar of class XII for the subject of Hindi is his genuine work, submitted to XYZ Public School in partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. I supervised the project and observed Ravi Kumar displaying consistent dedication from start to finish. I confirm that the project meets all the required criteria and is ready for evaluation.

Certificate for Project Class 12 Commerce

This is to certify that the project titled “The Impact of E-commerce on Small Businesses” submitted by Sanya Verma of class XII for the subject of Commerce is her original work, submitted to LMN International School for partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. The project was conducted under my supervision. Sanya Verma has worked diligently on this project, and I confirm that it meets the required standards for submission.

Certificate for Project Class 12 Physics

This is to certify that the project titled “Investigating the Laws of Motion through Practical Experiments” submitted by Rahul Singh of class XII for the subject of Physics is his authentic work, submitted to PQR Academy in partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. The project was completed under my guidance, with Rahul Singh displaying great commitment to the research and experimentation process. I certify that this project is ready for evaluation.

Certificate for Project Class 12 Political Science

This is to certify that the project titled “The Evolution of Indian Democracy” submitted by Meera Gupta of class XII for the subject of Political Science is her original work, presented to Sunrise Public School in partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. The project was undertaken under my guidance. Meera Gupta has been consistently thorough in her research and analysis. I affirm that the project is completed to my satisfaction and can be submitted for evaluation.

Certificate for Project Class 12 Biology

This is to certify that the project titled “The Effects of Pollution on Plant Growth” submitted by Nidhi Patel of class XII for the subject of Biology is her genuine work, submitted to Greenfield High School in partial fulfillment of the CBSE examination requirements for class XII. The project was completed under my supervision, with Nidhi Patel exhibiting thorough research and experimentation throughout the project. I verify that the project is fit for submission.

How to Write Certificate for Project Class 12 FAQs

How to write a certificate for a group project.

To write a certificate for a group project, include the title of the project, the names of all group members, a statement of completion, and acknowledgment of their efforts. Add the date, the name of the issuing authority (e.g., teacher or supervisor), and their signature.

How to write an acknowledgment and certificate for a school project?

For an acknowledgment, express gratitude to those who supported the project, such as teachers, classmates, and family. Mention their contributions and guidance. For a certificate, clearly state that the student has completed the project, including the student's name and the project title. Confirm that the project meets the necessary standards, and provide the date along with the teacher's or supervisor's signature.

How do I write a project completion certificate?

To write a project completion certificate, start with a title like Certificate of Completion. List the recipient's name, confirm the successful completion of the project, and provide the project title and date. End with the name and signature of the certifying authority.

How do you write a certification for a school project?

To write a certification for a school project, begin with a formal statement certifying the completion of the project. Include the student's name, the title of the project, and a declaration that the project meets all required criteria. Conclude with the date and the name and signature of the issuing authority, such as a teacher or principal.

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