Nature of Workshops and Seminars
Workshops
1. Participants
The workshops will be aimed at two groups:
a) researchers in substantive fields;
b) methodological researchers.
Each group will consist of up to 15 junior researchers. The workshops will provide integrated training for both groups, taking advantage of potential benefits of interaction between the two groups, while facilitating also the development of the separate skills needed by each group.
2. Contributors and Academic Planning
The workshops will be led jointly be two senior researchers, one primarily a substantive researcher and one with more methodological statistical skills. Both will be of high international standing in their field. They will be selected by the topic team. The broad subject matter of the workshop will be determined through initial discussion between the topic team and the two senior researchers. Once this is agreed upon, the two senior researchers will be responsible for all other academic planning of the workshop.
The two senior researchers will both be present throughout the workshop. Most workshops will include computer-based sessions, using data, and the senior researchers will usually be supported by an assistant, responsible for the organisation and support of such sessions. The Scientific Coordinator will provide general organisational support and may also provide support for the computer-based sessions.
3. Learning objectives
i) to develop an understanding of how different quantitative methods may be used to address different research questions in the social sciences, including an appreciation of the use of these methods in the substantive social science literature;
ii) to develop an understanding of when different methods are appropriate, the assumptions underlying the methods, the impact of departures from these assumptions and how departures can be diagnosed and possible solutions;
iii) to enable participants to apply appropriate methods in different circumstances, including an appreciation of data requirements and the implementation of the methods in computer software;
iv) to develop an understanding of the principles and theory underlying different methods;
v) to develop an understanding of how different methods have been developed and evaluated in the methodological literature and an awareness of the current frontiers of development and outstanding issues in this literature.
All objectives are relevant to all participants, but greater emphasis will be given to objectives i) and iii) for participants in group a), and to objectives iv) and v) for participants in group b).
4. Level and Background of Participants
Given the selective nature of the competition, it may be expected that all participants will be highly motivated and capable of effective study. A high level might therefore be aimed for and advertised, with the workshops being seen as prestigious events.
Given the variation in quantitative methods training between disciplines and between countries, it seems desirable to specify clearly the quantitative backgrounds assumed at each workshop for each type of student and to provide guidance on preparatory reading to ensure that any prior gaps can be remedied. Examples of assumptions about statistical backgrounds for the two types of student are:
a) (researchers in substantive fields): familiarity with basic descriptive and inferential statistics, including basic ideas of sampling variation, standard errors and tests; familiarity with basic linear regression methods.
b) (methodological researchers): familiarity with basic distinctions between alternative approaches to statistical inference (e.g. frequentist vs Bayesian); basic statistical theory (e.g. distribution theory, estimation theory, testing, maximum likelihood); various standard statistical methods (e.g. linear, multiple linear, binary response regression; basic categorical data methods; basic multivariate methods).
5. Schedule and Content
The workshop is to take place over one week. A possible schedule would be to hold the workshop from Thursday to Wednesday inclusive, followed by the seminar on Thursday and Friday, making nine days in total. No work would be scheduled for Sunday, leaving six working days for the workshop.
A basic format would be to devote mornings to instruction and afternoons to work in small groups and independent study. The mornings could be divided into two sessions, each of 90 minutes. A typical arrangement in the morning could consist of a first plenary session addressed to all of the (up to) 30 participants followed by the division of the second session into separate lectures for the two groups a) and b). The plenary sessions could be presented either by a different senior researcher on different days or by both jointly each day. The senior researchers would, of course, separately present the separate lectures. The final day (Wednesday) might be devoted mainly to presentations by the participants, based upon their afternoon work (see below) and might include little or no instruction.
Plenary sessions might include:
- motivating research questions and methodological challenges in different substantive social science areas;
- one or more case studies used throughout the workshop to convey the social science context of the methods;
- overviews of methods;
- interpretations of results of methods;
- outlines of implementation of methods in software.
Separate lectures for substantive researchers might include:
- deeper discussion of substantive context, interpretation and debates regarding the methods, including wider discussion of applications in the substantive social science literature;
- less technical overviews of principles and assumptions underlying methods;
- more extensive discussion of implementation of methods in practice with computers.
Separate lectures for methodological researchers might include:
- more detailed discussion of theory and principles underlying methods and the properties of these methods;
- more detailed discussion of the nature of the methods implemented in software;
- more extensive discussion of the methodological literature and the frontiers of development of this literature, including outstanding methodological problems.
The afternoon sessions might include:
- group work. Participants could be broken up into 5 (or more) teams, each consisting of 6 participants, 3 from group a) and 3 from group b). Each group would be charged with identifying a new substantive problem and data set, suitable for the application of the methods considered. The data set and substantive problem might be brought to the workshop by one of the participants or be based upon a standard dataset and supporting information, made available at the workshop. The group would work together to investigate the application of the methods to these data, with the aim of preparing a presentation of this work on the final day. The group might also produce written output for possible inclusion in the manual (see 6 below);
- individual work. Self-paced exercises (and associated reading) could be provided for participants to work though individually, to ensure that they had understood the essential material covered in the morning and were prepared for the following day’s lectures. These exercises might differ between participants in the two groups a) and b), for example exercises for group b) might include some theoretical work, whereas exercises for group a) might be primarily computer-based.
6. Course Materials and Manual
Several weeks before the workshop, participants should be circulated with details of the workshop programme and preparatory reading, including guidance on background knowledge required at the workshop and remedial reading that participants can undertake to fill any gaps in this background. A set of notes will be prepared before the workshop and copies will be distributed to participants when they arrive. These notes will usually include copies of slides used for presentation of the instructional part of the workshops and should include a bibliography and materials required for the afternoon work, e.g. exercises.
After the workshop, the aim is to produce a manual both in hard copy and electronically which will provide a set of illustrative applications of the methods across a broad range of social scientific disciplines. It is expected that the development of this manual will require discussion between the topic team and the senior researchers. It may be considered appropriate to produce separate manuals for different workshops or a single manual might be produced for two workshops under one topic heading. The manual is likely to include an edited version of the course materials and may also include materials prepared by participants in their group work.
Seminars
The seminar will be on the same topic addressed by the workshop. The speakers will be the best European researchers in the field. Where appropriate a speaker will also be invited from another part of the world, for example the USA in order to ensure that the seminar is at the cutting edge of research in the area. As in the workshop, it is expected that speakers will integrate real (and topical) social scientific problems into their papers and provide some reference to data sources. The seminar speakers should have interests across a wide range of disciplines.
The seminars will be attended by all workshop participants, the two senior researchers and up to ten other researchers invited by the topic team. The seminars will therefore be ‘closed’, limited to a maximum of 30+2+10=42 participants. The ten additional invited researchers will either be speakers or members of the topic team. Members of the topic team and the two senior researchers leading the workshop may or may not be speakers. It is expected that around eight to ten papers will be presented over the two days of the seminar, allowing plenty of time for discussion.
Speakers will be expected to provide a written paper, which may not be long but should include references to the relevant recent literature and to data sources. These papers will be made available publicly on the QMSS web-site after the seminar. Copies of slides used in presentations could also be included on the web-site.
