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

2001年7月9日至10日，美国国家科学基金会的政治科学项目召开了一次研讨会，建议通过弥合形式分析和实证分析之间的鸿沟来提高政治科学技术分析能力的方法——这是美国国家科学基金会的一项倡议，现在被称为理论模型的实证含义（EITM）。讲习班的参加者是在各种技术分析领域进行研究的资深学者，并在改进各种科学的技术分析专门知识的活动中有良好的记录。虽然参加者主要来自政治学，但也有其他学科的代表。这些建议形成了2001年7月26日发表的《亲爱的同事信》，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）提供了资助机会。特别强调教育部分、发展夏季培训机构和一年的研究金方案。这两个教育项目都针对研究生。现在是重新评估这些EITM计划的时候了。重新评估将从在国家科学基金会举行的为期一天的研讨会开始。研讨会的参与者将包括广泛的学者，他们要么参与了EITM，要么被认为是该领域的领导者。建议的参与者包括来自暑期学院的代表和国内甚至国际知名的学者，讨论与本次研讨会目标相关的方法挑战。这次研讨会将完成三件事。第一个任务是评估这些教育活动（重点是暑期学院），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执行新培训倡议的障碍。最后的任务是提出倡议，不仅要考虑到方法创新的障碍，而且要寻求为多学科运动创造基础，使这些科学上合理的改进更容易适应社会科学。该研讨会将产生一份报告，该报告将用于为政治学项目官员和司司长提供指导。讲习班和随后的报告是建立一套将促进社会科学方法论的多学科倡议的初步步骤。社会科学方法论的这些改进不仅将为基础研究提供改进，而且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.