Experimentation in Political Science

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。随机实验的兴起是过去十年来政治学中最显着的方法论发展之一。各个领域的学者现在经常转向实验。最近对实验的偏好意味着政治科学家面临着各种不同的挑战。实验的设计、实施和分析提出了许多政治科学家在历史上不习惯解决的问题。政治学尤其如此，因为这门学科的广度、实验实施的不同背景（例如，实验室、调查、现场），以及所采用的不同方法（例如，心理学或经济学方法进行实验）。为了确保该学科最大限度地提高其实验方法的回报，该项目支持一个统一的会议，“政治学实验”和第一本包含会议论文的《实验政治学手册》的出版。 会议和卷包括超过25个领先的政治科学家的贡献。 会议和卷的基本目标是在更广泛的学科中验证实验，提出重要的方法论问题，并审查突出的实验研究的贡献。该卷可作为教学和研究的参考。另一个重要贡献将涉及学生参与会议。来自全国各地的研究生将参加会议，并参加与教师与会者的指导计划。这为学生将来进行实验研究提供了坚实的基础。该项目确保政治科学实验接近最高水平的知识严谨性，从而使政治科学家能够在实验的使用和解释方面为决策者做出实质性贡献（例如，在评估社会方案、政策、机构和大众传播方面）。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The rise of randomized experiments is one of the most notable methodological developments in political science over the past decade. Scholars from every subfield now regularly turn to experiments. The recent penchant for experimentation means that political scientists face a variety of distinct challenges. The design, implementation, and analysis of experiments raise a number of issues that political scientists are not historically accustomed to addressing. This is particularly the case for political science due to the breadth of the discipline, the varying contexts in which experiments are implemented (e.g., laboratory, survey, field), and the distinct methods employed (e.g., psychological or economic approaches to experimentation). In order to ensure that the discipline maximizes its return on experimental methodology, this project supports a unifying conference, "Experimentation in Political Science" and the publication of the first Handbook of Experimental Political Science that will contain the papers from the conference. The conference and volume include contributions from more than twenty-five leading political scientists. The basic goals of the conference and volume are to situate experiments in the broader discipline, to present important methodological issues, and to review the contributions of prominent experimental research. The volume serves as a reference for both teaching and research.Another important contribution will involve student involvement in the conference. Graduate students from around the country will attend the conference and participate in a mentoring program with the faculty attendees. This provides students with a solid basis for pursuing future experimental research. The project ensures that political science experiments approach the highest level of intellectual rigor, thereby enabling political scientists to make substantial contributions to policy-makers in the usage and interpretation of experiments (e.g., in the evaluations of social programs, policies, institutions, and mass communications).