Grading

To successfully complete the class this semester, you

• submit a first draft of your research report along with documentation to reproduce your project (due December 19, 2018),
• present a revised version of your report (between January 8-29, 2019),
• submit your final research report along with documentation to reproduce your project (due February 15, 2019, 12:00pm).

Research project

In your research project, you replicate an existing empirical study on child or youth development in whole or in part. The primary goal is to competently carry out some or all of the empirical analyses in the study, to appropriately motivate the analyses, and to document your project workflow so that it can be understood and reproduced by anyone who has access to the original data. An exceptional research project additionally extends the original analysis in a meaningful way, for example, by

• looking at children at a different age,
• exploring group differences,
• investigating the mechanisms underlying some statistical relation,
• using additional or alternative control variables,
• applying alternative statistical methods.

The research report is structed as follows:

• Introduction
• Theoretical background
• Previous research (can also be integrated in one of the above)
• Method
  • Data and sample
  • Variables
  • Analytic strategy
• Results
  • Sample description
  • Main analyses
• Discussion and conclusions

The project documentation contains

• the folder structure established in the first part of the class,
• a readme-file that describes the documentation files and how to use them to reproduce the project,
• the raw data in CSV-format,
• a master do-file which executes all other do-files,
• one or more do-files that prepare the raw data for analysis (marked by the prefix cr),
• one or more do-files that reproduce consistency checks, sample description, and main analyses (marked by the prefix an).

Grading is based on the following criteria:

• Situating the research question in the context of existing theory and research (10%)
• Connection between research question, theory, method/analyses, and interpretation/conclusions (20%)
• Adherence to scientific standards (adequate presentation of existing theory, research, and methods; correct interpretation of results; clarity of writing and argument; appropriate referencing; proper labelling of figures and tables and formatting of text) (30%)
• Correctness and reproducibility of data preparation and analyses and completeness of project documentation (40%)

Bonus points

You can improve your final grade by one decimal increment (e.g., from 1.7 to 1.3 or from 3.0 to 2.7) by adequately answering a total of 10 questions posted by your classmates on Piazza, an online platform for class Q&A (see class resources below). For your answer to count towards your grade it must completely solve the initial query, including follow-up questions and clarifications, within 24 hours of the first post. Answers to trivial questions (e.g., “When is Homework 1 due?” or “Where do I find the slides?”) don’t qualify in this context. This bonus point policy is subject to review after the first semester.

Workload

Upon successful completion of the class you are awarded 15 credit points, which equals a total workload of 450 units à 45 minutes. Per semester, there are only 60 units (i.e., 3 hours/week) of class time. The remaining 165 units per semester (i.e., roughly 8 hours/week) are allotted to preparing and reviewing class contents, including homework assignments, reading, writing etc. Therefore, please schedule sufficient time outside of class hours.