Hi folks,
A student in section yesterday asked whether or not book chapters were
allowed to be used for the final paper/replication project required of all
students in Gov 1002/2001.
The short answer is yes.
The longer answer is yes, it is possible, with a few caveats. The basic
idea of the replication assignment is to choose a published work, replicate
its results and improve upon the methods used in it in a *meaningful *way.
This does not require you to replicate every analysis in the work chosen, as
replicating only one or a few of the results and improving upon the methods
used to obtain these results may be sufficient to make your contribution.
In this sense, the basic approach to the replication project is no different
whether you choose a book (and one chapter, for example) or an article (and
one table, for example). However, even if you are improving upon or
extending only one or a few parts of the analysis, it is important to
realize that you are still making a case about the *whole *work you have
chosen to replicate (i.e. the whole book or the whole article). So, you
need to be sure to read everything relevant to the work (e.g. the whole
book) and you may find it harder to make the case that your analysis is
better (i.e. makes a substantive difference and uses more
appropriate/defensible methods).
I hope this helps.
Miya
--
Miya Woolfalk
Ph.D. Student
Harvard University
Government and Social Policy
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