Order Description
The review essay
The aim of the review essay is to critically assess the research design of an academic piece of work. In so doing, you demonstrate what you have learned in the seminar. Here is what you need to do:
1. Choose a paper/article you want to review:
– Ideally, the paper is located in an area that is related to your field of research/research interest
– The chosen paper must make a causal claim, i.e. it must “explain something” (purely theoretical papers, literature reviews or pieces using interpretive approaches are not suitable)
– The chosen paper must employ a method we have covered in the seminar (pieces using game theory, formal modelling, advanced econometric models etc… are hence not suitable)
– Ideally, the chosen paper displays some methodological limitations you can address in your essay. Typically, such papers can be found in the “grey literature” (working papers, conference papers etc.) but also in a low-ranked journals.
2. Next step — write your essay
In the first part of your essay (20%-30% of the text) you are expected to discuss the research design employed by the author(s).
– What is the research question/argument?
– What are dependent and independent variables? ! What are the causal mechanism (if any)?
– What cases are included in the analysis, and how is the case selection justified?
– How are the variables measured etc.?
– Which method is being used?
– What are the main findings?
In the second part of your essay (70%-80% of the text) you are expected to critically engage with the article from a methodological point of view
– Does the paper address a gap in the relevant literature? Does it try to solve a puzzle? Does it make an important contribution to the existing scholar literature, and if so, how?
– Are you convinced by its research design? Why (not)?
– Is the research question clearly framed?
– Are the variables measured/conceptualized in an appropriate way?
– Is the case selection plausible? Is there selection bias?
– Are you convinced by the chosen qualitative or quantitative method? Why (not)?
o If it is a qualitative piece: how could the paper be improved using a quantitative method?
o If it is quantitative: how could it be improved using a qualitative method