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Overview Objectives Detailed Course Schedule Week 1: Introduction and issues in quantitative text analysis Week 2: Quantitative methods for comparing texts Week 3: Automated dictionary-based approaches Week 4: Machine learning and scaling for texts Week 5: Scaling models Final Assignment References When and where: 16 February, 23 February, 9 March, 16 March, 23 March 2018; Arts Building 3020.

Meeting times 5 February, 12 February, 11 March, 18 March. Course Handout Short Outline The course surveys methods for systematically extracting quantitative information from political text for social scientific purposes, starting with classical content analysis and dictionary-based methods, to classification methods, and state-of-the-art scaling methods and topic models for estimating quantities from text using statistical techniques.

2015, Trinity College, Dublin, Department of Political Science Instructor: Prof Kenneth Benoit, LSE Details: Class meets MONDAYS in Feb-March from 14:00 – 16:30, with one exception on Day 2 (see below)

Many people have reported problems when attempting to install the R package `topicmodels` on R when using OS X Mavericks or Yosemite. The problem is that the binaries are not yet built for these versions of OS X, and you need additional software installed in order to build the source.

Sponsored by: NYU Department of Politics 2014 pdf version of Course handout Instructor: Prof Kenneth Benoit, LSE Details: Class meets TUESDAYS 10:00 – 11:50 in Room 217 Note: As the class proceeds, I will add resources (slides, R code, text datasets, problem sets) to each session below.

Frequently I am asked: I have a bunch of pdf files, how can I convert them to plain text so that analyze them using quantitative techniques? Here is my recommendation.

Quantitative Text Analysis 2E Essex Summer School 2014 Course handout Instructor: Prof Kenneth Benoit, LSE TA: Dr. Paul Nulty, LSE Day 1: Quantitative text analysis overview and fundamentals slides demonstration .

Short Outline The course surveys methods for systematically extracting quantitative information from text for social scientific purposes, starting with classical content analysis and dictionary-based methods, to classification methods, and state-of-the-art scaling methods and topic models for estimating quantities from text using statistical techniques.

New Directions in Analyzing Text as Data Workshop (2013) Schedule: Version 26 September 2013 London School of Economics and Political Science Friday, September 27, 2012, 8:30 – Saturday, September 28, 2012, 17:00

Quantitative Text Analysis 2F Essex Summer School 2013 Instructor: Prof Kenneth Benoit, LSE TAs: Dr. Paul Nulty, LSE; Petra Martina Baumann, U. Salzburg Course handout Day 1:Introduction and Issues in Quantitative Text Analysis

Here are the slides and files from my “Unsupervised Text Scaling Methods” workshop in our MY560 series from June 11, 2013. Slides here Lab Exercise here Files for lab exercise: the amicus briefs and the Irish 2010 budget speeches

Here are the slides and files from my “Introduction to Supervised Methods for Classifying and Scaling Texts” workshop in our MY560 series from May 28, 2013. Slides here Lab Exercise here Files for lab exercise: Movie Reviews and the amicus briefs

ME104 Linear Regression Analysis Professor Kenneth Benoit London School of Economics and Political Science Course Handout as pdf Objectives and Learning Outcomes This course focuses on building a greater understanding, theoretical underpinning, and tools for applying the linear regression model and its generalizations.

Computer-Assisted Text Analysis Essex Summer School Prof Kenneth Benoit, LSE Dr. Paul Nulty, LSE NOTE: Krippendorf 3rd ed. text is now available from the summer school office! Course handout Day 1:Introduction and Issues in Quantitative Text Analysis

Job opening: Research Officer in Quantitative Text Analysis Duration: 24 months Start Date: 1 March 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter Salary: £31,998 – £38,737 p.a. incl. Applications are invited for the post of Research Officer, to assist with a principal research officer for the European Research Council funded grant Quantitative Text Analysis for the Social Sciences (QUANTESS).

A brilliant cartoon from Craphound:

Just finished teaching at the Essex Summer School in Data Analysis, Session 1. Got a lot of technical questions from my class… Technical questions

This concerns the short course I am teaching at the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, University of Essex, from 11-22 July 2011. Course handout (syllabus) Day 1: Introduction to Computer-Assisted TextAnalysis

An Introduction to Multi-Level Models (Using Stata) European University Institute, May 23–27, 2011 Professor Kenneth Benoit Methodology Institute, London School of Economics https://www.kenbenoit.net/mlm/ Course handout here. Readings are available from Mark Franklin’s Dropbox account for this course.

This post concerns the short course I am teaching at Central European University, Budapest from 14-21 April 2011. Stay tuned to this post for future announcements. The course handout (syllabus) is available here.

On Friday, November 12 your five-page (maximum) outline of your research proposal is due. In brief: This is designed to be a shorter version of your final assignment research proposal, providing a more summary version of the project will propose in fuller form at the end of the term.

This is painfully funny… if completely, ahem, unfounded.

The recently formed European Political Science Association has just issued a call for papers for its 1st Annual General Conference, to be held in Dublin, Ireland from June 16-18, 2011. The conference takes place in the excellent Guinness Storehouse Conference Centre.

I’ve accepted a position at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where I will be Professor and Head of the Methodology Institute from January 2011. My workplace from Jan 2011

You have to be able to read Hungarian, but here is the story: “ A Republikoné és a Századvégé volt a legpontosabb mandátumbecslés” Don’t read Hungarian? Try http://translate.google.ie/?hl=en&tab=wT#hu|en|.

My forecast of the final parliamentary seat distribution for the Hungarian elections is the following: Fidesz: 264 seats (68.4%) MSZP: 58 seats (15%) Jobbik: 48 seats (12.4%) LMP: 16 seats (4.

My forecast of the final parliamentary seat distribution for the Hungarian elections is the following: Fidesz: 264 seats (68.4%) MSZP: 58 seats (15%) Jobbik: 48 seats (12.4%) LMP: 16 seats (4.

NOTE: Week 6 will be a double-length session, since Week 7 clashes with the Political Economy mini-conference. As a result, there is no field seminar meeting on Mar 12. Instead, the Week 6 (Feb 26) will last from 9-13:00.

See Keisuke Hirano’s Haiku page. Here is one of my favorites: T-stat looks too good. Use robust standard errors– significance gone.

Interviewing techniques for academic research, Dr. Jacqueline Hayden Friday January 22nd and 29th Location: Room 3131 Arts Block (Podcast/Video Recording and playback facility) Time: 9-11 am and 12-1pm Note: Room 3131 is booked by the English Dept.

The Michigan Model, Professor Michael Marsh This is classically presented in A. Cambell et al The American Voter, which is available via Google online. Critical chapters are 2, 6 and 7.

Week 8: The impact of referendums (MG) Lawrence LeDuc, T_he Politics of Global Democracy: referendums in global perspective_. Peterborough Ontario: Broadview Press, 2003 Matt Qvortrup, A_ Comparative Study of Referendums: Government by the People_, 2nd ed (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).

Week 5 : (30 Oct) Raj Chari: Interest Groups in the EU Frank Baumgartner and Beth L. Leech. 2001. “Interest Niches and Policy Bandwagons: Patterns of Interest Group Involvement in National Politics.

The Field Seminar B course handout is available here, although we are still working out the content and some of the topics for later sessions. The first four weeks look like this:

The best way to unlock modern iPhones using the most recent Apple firmwares is to use RedSn0w. Here is a guide for unlocking the 2G iPhones (such as mine). If you want to unlock a 3G or 3GS, you need to jailbreak the phone first using RedSn0w, and then unlock it using UltraSn0w, the unlocking tool for iPhone 3G.

The paper I wrote last year with Michael Marsh, “ A Relative Impact Ranking of Political Studies in Ireland will be published in the 3rd issue of Economic and Social Review.

I’ve just posted, somewhat late, the full replication materials and error dataset from: Kenneth Benoit, Slava Mikhaylov, and Michael Laver. 2009. “ Treating Words as Data with Error: Uncertainty in Text Statements of Policy Positions.

This is very close to what we do in statistical sciences! Success through simulation

And this from the Matrix Reloaded (the best scene and dialogue of the film by far): Merovingian: You see, there is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality.

I run R behind a firewall, and found it tricky to set the proxy settings for R so that I could directly install packages, access outside data using load(url()), etc. The solution lies in the http_proxy environment variable.

Fully-funded studentships are available for study in the PhD programme in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin, paying tuition plus a stipend of up to €15,000 per year. Application for this financial support is automatically considered as part of the normal admissions process.

Here’s a recent article published in the New York Times about R, the freely available statistical package: “Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power” By ASHLEE VANCE Published: January 7, 2009

Here’s a recent article published in the New York Times about R, the freely available statistical package: “Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power” By ASHLEE VANCE Published: January 7, 2009

Here’s a good one from http://www.phdcomics.com for all you PhD students:

I have now added the detailed course outlines to my web page for the courses I am teaching in Spring 2009. These are: Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods (MSc) Quantitative Methods II (PhD) 

As promised I have now posted the presentations from the weeks in Government Institutions. These are in pdf format so should be readable by everyone. Note that you must be on the local TCD network (or using the VPN or proxy server) to access these files.

Michael Marsh and I have just finalized our comparative assessment of the research output an impact of political studies scholars in Ireland. This exercise compares citation measures for all permanent, full-time academic staff in eight Irish politics departments (in the Republic and in Northern Ireland).

Michael Marsh and I have just finalized our comparative assessment of the research output an impact of political studies scholars in Ireland. This exercise compares citation measures for all permanent, full-time academic staff in eight Irish politics departments (in the Republic and in Northern Ireland).

One interesting side finding of the citations data from my paper with Michael Marsh was the cross-validation, throuch comparison with other measures, of the results from Google Scholar compared to other bibliographic indexes.

Note: The latest version of the course handout is available from http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/postgraduate/phdtaught.php. That version lacks the hyperlinks to the readings below, however. The meeting time and place is Friday 10-13:00, College Green 4, starting 3 October 2008.

"Everyone heading for the top / But tell me how far is it from the bottom / Everybody want to go to heaven / But nobody want to die. “ Peter Tosh

Updated: 4 June 2008 The preliminary version of a paper that profiles departments and ranks the top scholars working in Ireland on politics, government, and international relations according to scholarly impact (measured by citations) has now been posted for comments at http://www.

This is my experience with getting an iPhone working with Ireland’s Meteor network. Currently the iPhone is only available from O2, and only with an 18-month service contract. I have been using a simple, pay-as-you-go plan from Meteor and wanted to use that in an iPhone.

March 7 – Campaign Finance and the Effects of Spending Required: Jacobson, Gary C. 1978. “The Effects of Campaign Spending in Congressional Elections."American Political Science Review 72 (June): 469-91. Kenneth Benoit and Michael Marsh.

Week 2: Electoral System Origins Colomer, Josep M. (2004). “The Strategy and History of Electoral System Choice”. In Josep M. Colomer (Ed.), Handbook of Electoral System Choice, pp. 3-78. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

This will be a place for posting announcements (and comments) related to courses I teach.

I have now completed moving my old web page to the new server, and it now has a completely new look, feel, and function as well. The use of WordPress allows posts and comments, which I welcome on any topic.