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20% | Research Project

Students are required to submit a final project in the form of a co-authored and fully reproducible research paper that applies the quantitative methods and tools learned throughout the course.

Working in their designated groups, students will answer an original research question in political behavior or public opinion using the ANES 2024 dataset.

The final paper synthesizes the cumulative work accomplished across the 5 milestones: articulating a clear theoretical puzzle, reviewing relevant peer-reviewed literature, describing and recoding survey variables, conducting informative exploratory visualizations, estimating regression models with controls in statsmodels presented side by side, and interpreting findings substantively.

Key Requirements

  • Format: Prepared in Typst using the provided project template.
  • Length: Between 4,000 and 5,000 words (excluding references, tables, and figures).
  • Deliverables:
    1. Rendered PDF manuscript (da-final-paper-groupX.pdf)
    2. Typst source code and .bib file (da-final-paper-groupX.typ and references.bib)
    3. Fully executable Python analysis script (da-final-script-groupX.py)
  • Deadline & Submission: Friday, March 26, 2027 at 23:59 via email to the instructor with the subject line: 
    [DATA-ANALYSIS] Final Paper - Group X
    (Attach all 3 deliverables and list all contributing group members in the body of the email).

Evaluation Rubric

The project will be evaluated based on four balanced criteria:

Criteria Weight Description
Code & Reproducibility 25% Code is clean, thoroughly commented, adheres to pythonic standards, and executes end-to-end without errors.
Methods & Modeling 25% Appropriate statistical choices, proper variable cleaning, justified scale creation, and sound regression specifications with relevant controls.
Academic Prose & Mechanics 25% Clarity of writing, precision of sociological concepts, accurate use of APA/Chicago citations with .bib.
Organization & Argument 25% Cohesive narrative linking the empirical puzzle, theoretical hypotheses, and empirical evidence into a compelling conclusion.