A workshop on the Integration of Emerging Formal and Empirical Methods and Tools to Enhance Social Scientific Development

2001年7月9日和10日，国家科学基金会政治学计划召开了一次研讨会，建议如何通过弥合形式分析和经验分析之间的鸿沟来提高政治学的技术分析能力-这是一项NSF倡议，现在被称为理论模型的经验影响(EITM)。讲习班的参加者是资深学者，他们在各个技术分析领域进行研究，并在改进各种科学的技术分析专门知识的活动中取得了良好的记录。虽然参与者主要来自政治学，但也有其他学科的代表。这些建议导致了2001年7月26日发出的一封致同事的信，信中为教育(培训和再培训)、知识传播(会议和讲习班)和研究(建立研究工作组)提供了资金机会。特别强调教育部分、发展暑期培训机构和为期一年的研究金方案。这两个教育项目都是针对研究生的。现在是时候重新评估这些EITM倡议了。重新评估将从国家科学基金会为期一天的研讨会开始。讲习班的参加者将包括广泛的学者，他们要么参与了环境信息技术管理，要么被公认为这一领域的领导者。建议的参与者包括暑期研究所的代表和国内、甚至国际知名的学者，他们就与本工作坊目标相关的方法学挑战进行讨论。第一项任务是评估这些教育举措(重点是暑期研习班)，并确定它们的总体效果。第二项任务是讨论培训和方法方面的新趋势，以及实施新的培训举措的障碍。最后一项任务是提出倡议，这些倡议不仅要考虑到方法创新的障碍，而且要寻求为多学科运动奠定基础，以便更容易地将这些科学上合理的改进适应于社会科学。这次研讨会将产生一份报告，用于为政治学项目官员和司司长提供指导。研讨会和随后的报告是创建一套多学科倡议的第一步，将促进社会科学方法。社会科学方法论的这些改进不仅将改进基础研究，还将有助于决策者的应用研究。

On July 9th and 10th, 2001, the Political Science Program of the National Science Foundation convened a workshop to recommend ways to improve technical-analytical proficiency in Political Science by bridging the divide between formal and empirical analysis --- an NSF initiative now called the Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM). The participants in the Workshop were senior scholars with research in various technical-analytical areas and proven track records in activities that have improved the technical-analytical expertise in various sciences. While the participants were primarily from political science, other disciplines were represented. These recommendations resulted in a Dear Colleague Letter that was issued on July 26, 2001 that provided funding opportunities for education (training and retraining), the dissemination of knowledge (conferences and workshops), and research (establishment of research work groups). Particular emphasis was placed on the education component, the development of summer training institutes and a year-long fellowship program. Both education programs targeted graduate students.It is now time to reassess these EITM initiatives. The reassessment will begin with a day long workshop at the National Science Foundation. Workshop participants will include a wide range of scholars who have been either involved in EITM or have been recognized as leaders in this area. Suggested participants include representatives from the summer institutes and scholars of national, even international reputations, on methodological challenges related to the goals of this workshop.This workshop will accomplish three things. The first charge is to evaluate these education initiatives (with emphasis on the summer institutes) and to determine their overall effectiveness. The second charge is to discuss emerging trends in training and methodology and the impediments to implementing new training initiatives. The final task is to recommend initiatives that not only account for impediments to methodological innovation, but also seek to create the foundation for a multidisciplinary movement that more readily adapts these scientifically justified improvements to the social sciences. A report will be generated from this workshop that will be used to provide guidance to the Political Science Program Officers as well as the Division Director.The workshop and the subsequent report are the initial steps in creating a set of multidisciplinary initiatives that will advance social science methodology. These improvements in social science methodology will not only provide improvements in basic research, but will also aid in applied research for policymakers.