Introduction to Social Science Research

In week 1 we discussed some general purposes for carrying out social science research, research ethics, and strategies for carrying out preliminary research.  Follow the set of instructions before getting started!

Now consider the following questions:

 What challenges are you having in coming up with a unique and narrowly focused research question?  Did you have any challenges findings articles within the library?  If so, what did you do to alter your search parameters?  Do you anticipate any difficulties in any of the phases of the research cycle as you pursue research on your topic?

Instructions:

Take a look at this video on the APUS Library to help get you acquainted with the recent updates that have taken place within our library. To also help you navigate the library check out the Ask a Librarian Playlist.  Here you’ll find information on LibAnswers!, how to search for books, how to search for articles and more.

Using the online library, navigate to the library’s “articles & databases” section and look within the Security & Global Studies database list.  Using one or more of the databases find 3 peer-reviewed journal articles to help you articulate your research interests.  When talking about the topic you are interested in researching be sure to reference the articles using the writing style specific to your field of study. In addition to presenting your research topic, and research question, your post should reflect that you have read this week’s content material and demonstrate that you have a sense of the research cycle and what it means to carry out ethical research.

Within this course the assignments are scaffolded in that each of them should help you complete the final assignment in this course – an 8–10-page research proposal.  To help jump start the planning process, this week you’ll need to discuss your research interests as they pertain to your field of study be it criminal justice, international relations, intelligence studies or etc.  Here the goal of the discussion is to help you narrow in on a possible research question you’d like to frame out for your week 3 assignment and will ultimately come to use in your research proposal.