Exploring Data through Research Literature: An ICPSR Instructional Resources
Project
About the Project |
Exercises
Exercises
EDRL's exercises all follow a similar structure. In each:
- Students begin with an entry article and conclude with an exit article.
- The instructor gives students a suitable entry article, but asks students to find their own exit articles through ICPSR's Bibliography of Data-related Literature.
- Students compare exit and entry articles to determine how authors differentially use theory, methodology, and data to answer their respective research questions.
- Instructors are welcome to incorporate the "guiding questions" into more comprehensive assignments, like papers or in-lab group discussions in which students analyze the general treatment of a research question or the perceived structure of research in a given subdiscipline.
The exercises ask students to find exit articles with various relationships to the entry article.
| Relative to Entry Article, Exit Article is... | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By Same Author |
Uses Same Dataset |
By New Author |
Uses New Dataset |
|
| Exercise 1: Other Works | X | X | ||
| Exercise 2: Other People | X | X | ||
| Exercise 3: Other Datasets | X | X | ||
EDRL's exercises assume that:
- Students can learn important things about social science research methodology by comparing the works of those who employ certain methodologies.
- A citation database is both a means to an end and an end in itself. Students can use networks of data and literature to find articles suitable for comparison. As they navigate these networks, they will also begin to uncover a bird's-eye view of their discipline.
There are multiple ways to enter ICPSR's Bibliography of Data-related Literature. One can:
The exercises on these pages employ the first two searching strategies.