Advice for Political Science Paper Writers

Topic, question, thesis

Make sure your paper is analytic. Argue for an analytic (or “positive”) stance, rather than a normative one. In other words, engage in “objective” rather than “subjective” analysis. Answer the question “what is?”, rather than the question “what should be?”.

You are writing for a professional audience. Choose language and a tone that reflect this.
Provide enough political, social, and/or intellectual context for your reader to understand the issue you address, and why one should care about it.
When describing procedures you undertook, write in the first person. For example, write “We collected data from 1000 web sites” or “I then regress the outcome on two predictors, X1 and X2”. Avoid the passive voice. (Do not write “The data from 1000 web sites were collected” or “The outcome was regressed on X1 and X2”. These leave us wondering, “by whom?”)

Clearly state your specific question. Your question is a case of a more general set of political phenomena. Know the literature from the more general set.
Compare your political phenomenon of interest to models of how politics works in such cases.
Understand counterarguments, alternative explanations, and competing hypotheses to your own. Refute them to the extent possible.

Be clear whether you’re making descriptive or causal claims.
Make claims that are falsifiable. How would you know if you were wrong? What evidence would disagree with your argument?
In making causal claims, the nature of the implicit or explicit comparison group is important.
In making causal claims, do not control for or match on post-treatment quantities; avoid post-treatment bias.
Discuss measurement, modeling, design, and data strategies. Discuss limitations of your approaches.
Do not include the specific names of variables or objects in your paper. It can be important to describe a variable you created, but its name is not important to the reader. For example, you might write “We create a binary measure of ideology that is 1 for respondents with scores greater than the median and 0 for those at or below the median.” You should not include the fact that you named the variable ideo7gr_med.
Provide the details of your quantitative results.
Web sources should exclude wikis, include full citations (including access date), and be kept to a minimum. When possible, cite the original published document instead of the web version.

Submit your paper with a title page containing the title of the paper, author names, the date, a word count, and an abstract of 150 words or fewer.
Papers written for GOVT 310, “Introduction to Political Research”, do not have a page limit. Most successful submissions range from 8–20 pages.
For word counts:
- Include words that are in section headings, footnotes, in-text citations, and table or figure captions.
- Exclude words that are on the title page, or are in the bibliography.
Double-space the content of the paper; single-space footnotes, captions, and the bibliography.
Provide 1 inch margins on all four sides.
Use a 12- (or 11-) point font.
Provide page numbers.
Staple your pages with a single staple in the upper left-hand corner.
References in the text should employ a consistent formatting style. In political science, consider emulating the style used in the APSR or Political Analysis.
You may use footnotes or in-text citations.
If a figure or table is central to your argument, include it in the body of your paper. If it is supplementary, include it in an appendix.

Harvard’s IQSS data compilation for research papers
Harvard’s Dataverse for data from published studies
Federal Data Field Guide with overviews of data types, sources, and examples
Sources compiled by the AU subject librarian for GOVT-310 at https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/GOVT310Data
Urban Institute’s Open Data portal
Erik Gahner’s list of political datasets
The House of Representatives Green Book with policy data on programs within Ways & Means’ jurisdiction (e.g., 50 years of average welfare caseloads)
The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) for individual- and household-level economic activity (requires registration, which can take a few days)
The General Social Survey (GSS)
Data links from Machine Learning for Social Justice

On every step of the research process (data, coding, writing, presentation, management), see Harvard IQSS’s Undergraduate Research Resource Reservoir.
On writing nonfiction, read William K. Zinsser’s On Writing Well (noting that academic writing is different than humor writing, e.g.).
On writing for publication, read Gary King’s online notes and PS: Political Science and Politics article (PDF).
On writing for publication, read Andrew Gelman’s suggestions.
On citation, see the APSA citation style, the Chicago Manual of Style, and the MLA Handbook.