I am pleased to announce that the Oxford's
Centenary Celebrations Award Committee for the
Political Methodology Section has nominated the
following two articles published in Political
Analysis to be included in the as one of the top
100 articles published by Oxford University
Press. I also want to thank the committee,
Cherie Maestas - comm chair (Florida State),
David Darmofal (South Carolina), and Tobin Grant
(Southern Illinois University).
1. Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn 2002.
“Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain
Monte Carlo for the US. Supreme Courte,
1953-1999” Political Analysis 10: 134-153.
Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn
address a question of central importance in the
study of politics – the estimation of policy
preferences of political elites. Many theories
in political science are cannot be tested without
reliable and valid knowledge of the policy
preferences of key decision-makers. Martin and
Quinn develop a novel but sound methodological
approach to estimating those preferences using
Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to fit a
Bayesian measurement model. This technique
estimates the policy preferences of individual
Supreme Court Justices across multiple years,
allowing scholars to explore how an individual
justice’s preferences change over time as well as
how justices differ from one another at a given
point in time. Although their method was
developed to estimate the “ideal points” of
Supreme Court justices, this method could also be
applied to a range of political actors including
justices at other levels of the courts and
legislators at the state and national level.
Although the article was published
recently (2002), it has already had an impact on
the work of other scholars. This article is the
single most cited piece in Political Analysis
since 2002. Indeed, with a total of 27 citations,
it is also the second most cited article in the
history of the quarterly journal. To put this in
a broader perspective, the citation count for
this article exceeds the citation count of all
articles but one published in 2002 in the top two
general journals in political science, American
Political Science Review, and American Journal of
Political Science. In fact, only 5 articles in
the top two journals over period of 2001 – 2006
had more than 27 citations. Moreover, many of
the articles that cite this manuscript are
published in top political science and law
journals. Because of the broad interest in this
article and the high citation counts, we believe
this article continue to be influential for years to come.
2. 2005 David W. Nickerson 2005. “Scalable
Protocols Offer Efficient Design for Field
Experiments.” Political Analysis 13: 233-252.
Field experiments are becoming
increasingly popular in political science because
they allow researchers to generalize, with
confidence, about how various political stimuli
influence the political behavior of
citizens. Field experiments, which are carried
out in the “real world” using subjects that are
making meaningful political choices, are an
attractive approach to testing theories of
behavior, but they can also be costly and
difficult to administer. David Nickerson’s
article on scalable protocols is likely to have a
significant impact on field experimentation
because it offers clear and practical advice
about how to ensure that field experiments yield
high quality results. Nickerson outlines a way of
designing experimental protocols so that they are
scalable to respond to contingencies experienced
in the field. This approach provides both
inferential and practical benefits for the
applied researcher. On the inferential side,
Nickerson demonstrates that the scalable
protocols provide significant gains in
statistical efficiency over standard experimental
protocols. This allows researchers to make more
accurate inferences about the causes of political
behavior. On the practical side, these efficiency
gains can be realized without requiring that the
researcher invest considerable additional time or
money in the field experiment.
David Nickerson’s article has been
in print for less than a year, so a citation
count cannot provide a measure of the importance
of the article. However, one indicator of its
quality is that the Political Methodology section
awarded it the Warren E. Miller prize for the
best paper published by Political Analysis in
2005. We believe it warrants inclusion as one of
Oxford’s 100 best for three reasons. First, the
topic applies broadly to scholars of social
research in all area, not just political science.
Second, it explains in clear language the
trade-offs from making different choices in the
design of field experiments, thereby allowing
scholars to consider the best approach given
their level of resources. Finally, it provides a
unique approach – scalable protocols - to help
researchers to design cost-effective field
experiments. Nickerson’s article addresses both
the scholarly and practical concerns of field
experimenters, and in doing so is likely to draw
additional scholars to this important research approach.
Cheers,
Jan
Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science
Professor of Sociology
Director of the Program in Statistical Methodology
Mailing address: Department of Political Science
Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210-1373
Phone: (614) 292-9642
Fax: (614) 292-1146
Location: 2049S Derby Hall
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
**********************************************************
Political Methodology E-Mail List
Editor: Karen Long Jusko <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
Send messages to [log in to unmask]
To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
your subscription settings visit:
http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php
**********************************************************
|
