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Read more about Quantitative Research Methods for Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration (With Applications in R) - 3rd Edition

Quantitative Research Methods for Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration (With Applications in R) - 3rd Edition

(8 reviews)

Hank Jenkins-Smith, University of Oklahoma

Joseph Ripberger, University of Oklahoma

Copyright Year: 2017

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Libraries

Language: English

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CC BY

Reviews

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Reviewed by Saahir Shafi, Assistant Professor, California State University, Dominguez Hills on 12/13/22

This textbook provides a solid introduction to quantitative methods in social science research. It is ideal for introducing early stage researchers to R as a tool of quantitative research. From a broad overview of the scientific method and... read more

Reviewed by Lindsay Benstead, Associate Professor, Portland State University on 9/3/22

This book is highly comprehensive in the sense that it effectively marries a discussion of the theoretical foundations of research design and statistics with concrete examples and syntax for applying the concepts in R. Although there is neither an... read more

Reviewed by Caitlin Jewitt, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech on 12/14/21

This book is very comprehensive, beginning with the scientific method, progressing through research design, data visualization, inference, regression, and culminating with a chapter on generalized linear models (logit). The table of contents is... read more

Reviewed by Kimberly Wilson, Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University on 3/22/20

The book's overall approach is great -- framing quantitative methods in terms of social scientific research more broadly. If I was teaching a quantitative methods course, I would most likely use this book, as it covers a nice range of essentials,... read more

Reviewed by Christina Ladam, Graduate Part-time Instructor, CU Boulder on 6/5/19, updated 7/1/19

This text does a solid job in providing an introduction to statistical analysis with a focus on regression. Additionally, it provides a light introduction to statistical computing in R. This is mostly a tool for teaching regression, with a light... read more

Reviewed by Chris Garmon, Assistant Professor of Health Administration, University of Missouri - Kansas City on 5/24/19

The book's coverage of regression is outstanding. In particular, this is the most comprehensive coverage of regression diagnostics I've seen in a research methods text. There is also an entire chapter on logit regression, whereas most texts may... read more

Reviewed by Sarah Fisher, Assistant Professor, Emory and Henry College on 3/20/19

In terms of content, this text contains nearly everything I generally cover in my introductory statistics class. This book is aimed at graduate students, but I am reviewing it for undergraduate social science majors. Overall, I think this will... read more

Reviewed by Saleheh Sharifmoghaddam, Adjunct Lecturer, Lehman College, City University of New York on 5/21/18

This book definitely tackles many of the issues facing students doing quantitative analysis in social sciences. The authors try to cover the main data analysis techniques, providing readers with ample examples to better appreciate the complexity... read more

Table of Contents

I Theory and Empirical Social Science

  • 1 Theories and Social Science
  • 2 Research Design
  • 3 Exploring and Visualizing Data
  • 4 Probability
  • 5 Inference
  • 6 Association of Variables

II Simple Regression

  • 7 The Logic of Ordinary Least Squares Estimation
  • 8 Linear Estimation and Minimizing Error
  • 9 Bi-Variate Hypothesis Testing and Model Fit
  • 10 OLS Assumptions and Simple Regression Diagnostics

III Multiple Regression

  • 11 Introduction to Multiple Regression
  • 12 The Logic of Multiple Regression
  • 13 Multiple Regression and Model Building
  • 14 Topics in Multiple Regression
  • 15 The Art of Regression Diagnostic

IV Generalized Linear Model

  • 16 Logit Regression

V Appendices

  • 17 Appendix: Basic

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About the Book

The focus of this book is on using quantitative research methods to test hypotheses and build theory in political science, public policy and public administration. It is designed for advanced undergraduate courses, or introductory and intermediate graduate-level courses. The first part of the book introduces the scientific method, then covers research design, measurement, descriptive statistics, probability, inference, and basic measures of association. The second part of the book covers bivariate and multiple linear regression using the ordinary least squares, the calculus and matrix algebra that are necessary for understanding bivariate and multiple linear regression, the assumptions that underlie these methods, and then provides a short introduction to generalized linear models.

The book fully embraces the open access and open source philosophies. The book is freely available in the SHAREOK repository; it is written in R Markdown files that are available in a public GitHub repository; it uses and teaches R and RStudio for data analysis, visualization and data management; and it uses publically available survey data (from the Meso-Scale Integrated Socio-geographic Network) to illustrate important concepts and methods. We encourage students to download the data, replicate the examples, and explore further! We also encourage instructors to download the R Markdown files and modify the text for use in different courses.

About the Contributors

Authors

Hank Jenkins-Smith earned his PhD in political science from the University of Rochester (1985). He is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Oklahoma, and serves as a co-Director of the National Institute for Risk and Resilience. Professor Jenkins-Smith has published books and articles on public policy processes, national security, weather, and energy and environmental policy. He has served on National Research Council Committees, as an elected member on the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, and as a member of the governing Council of the American Political Science Association. His current research focuses on theories of the public policy process, with particular emphasis on the management (and mismanagement) of controversial technical issues involving high risk perceptions on the part of the public. In 2012 he and collaborators initiated a series of studies focused on social responses to the risks posed by severe weather. This work continues with a panel survey of Oklahoma households, funded by the National Science Foundation, to track perceptions of and responses to changing weather patterns. In his spare time, Professor Jenkins-Smith engages in personal experiments in risk perception and management via skiing, scuba diving and motorcycling.

Joseph Ripberger currently works at the Center for Risk and Crisis Management, University of Oklahoma. Joseph does research in Public Policy. Their current project is 'Glen Canyon Dam.'

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