UPL533 RESEARCH METHODS AND ETHICS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
| Course Code: | 8110533 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 6.0 |
| Department: | Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Graduate |
| Course Coordinator: | |
| Offered Semester: | Fall and Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
This course provides a graduate-level introduction to and overview of approaches to social science research. We will first start discussing the major methodological, ontological, and epistemological approaches to research in social sciences. We will then lay the foundations of conducting research in social sciences, covering important issues such as ethics, research questions, literature review, and academic writing. We will continue by examining a rich collection of qualitative and quantitative research methods, by exploring both the theoretical approaches to these methods and practical/empirical applications of these methods in our field.
Course Content
This course is designed to ensure that students gain knowledge, awareness and sensitivity on basic ethical principles and to help students develop their abilities in applying ethical issues by using statistical ethics. The course also extends students knowledge on research types commonly used in social sciences. The course also targets to develop students skills on research planning.
Specifically, the course covers the following topics: What are science and scientific ethics? History of science and ethics; what is statistics? What are the role and place of statistics in research ethics?Basic statistical concepts (population, sample, dependent and independent variables, variable types etc); data collection methods; Research types in the field of social sciences; Research planning and stages; Sampling methods and appropriate sample size; Sources of error in research; Scientific research plan/proposal preparation; Ethics, principal of research ethics, ethics in statistics; Ethical issues in research; Scientific integrity and misconduct, violation of publishing ethics (fabrication, falsification, or plagiarisim in proposing, performing, or reviewing research or in reporting research results); Publication bias, conflict of interest, ethics and editorship; Responsibilities and duties of research ethics committees.
Course Learning Outcomes
The capstone of the course is an original research proposal, which students may submit as a TÜBİTAK research proposal (such as TÜBİTAK 1001, 1002, 3501 programs) or an equivalent research proposal to be submitted to international agencies such as the European Union. At the end of the course, the students are expected to be well-equipped and knowledgeable regarding various research methods and techniques in our field, how to conduct them in their own research, and how to present their research in front of an academic audience.
Program Outcomes Matrix
| Level of Contribution | |||||
| # | Program Outcomes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | Being an expert and making policy analysis and policy formulation within issues as such urban social policy, urban health, local government finance, urban transportation policy, urban water management, institutional capacity development and reorganization of local governments, urban planning and development legislation, urban redevelopment, public-private-partnership for urban services, industrialization and urban economy, city and regional planning, housing and real estate policies, urban conservation, alternatives for local services, environmental policies in the urban context, rural areas management, urban disaster management, women participation to the urban politics, urban social movements, participation to the local politics, urban crime and security. | ✔ | |||
| 2 | Ability to take responsibility for leadership during the interdisciplinary oriented field research that necessitates active coordination and issues determining and analyzing the problems of public. | ✔ | |||
| 3 | Analytically thinking and synthesizing ability that operationalize research framework with different dimensions and ability to define solution based problems. | ✔ | |||
| 4 | Ability for qualitative and quantitative data gathering and processing and sharing the outputs with shareholders especially policy makers and public. | ✔ | |||
| 5 | Having the knowledge of related institutional and legal regulations. | ✔ | |||
| 6 | Having the knowledge of national and international academic literature and having critical thinking and distinctive contributions to the literature that the students deal with. | ✔ | |||
| 7 | Ability to formulate creative policy alternatives and policy implementations by adopting critical and realistic manner for assisting public authorities. | ✔ | |||
0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution