Interactive visualizations are used widely in the natural sciences to facilitate discovery in “big-data” research. This article introduces a project that applies the same data-driven discovery approach to politics. Lawmaking is a complex process that can be difficult to convey in a constructive way, whether the audience is the general public, students, or researchers. Legislative Explorer (available at http://www.legex.org) visualizes the progress of more than 250,000 congressional bills and resolutions introduced since 1973. Users of all abilities can engage with actual data to discover how bills become law. Filters designed by domain experts guide them toward key insights. It is our hope that Legislative Explorer promotes greater understanding of a much-maligned institution.

One of the key challenges of teaching a college survey course such as introductory American government is the lack of interest on the part of students, many of whom take the course to satisfy a general-education requirement. Recognizing that young people are fascinated by video games, the author devised a governance simulation built on the popular computer game SimCity. Although the video-game industry designed these sophisticated simulations to be played by a single participant rather than a large group, the author created a simple set of rules that allows students to run them collectively. This article examines five factors for which an instructor must account if games such as SimCity are to have educational value. The author argues that, if conducted properly, this type of in-class exercise provides a fun and interesting way to teach students about the inherent challenges of governing in a democracy.

With the prevalence and accessibility of film today, we must wonder how film affects its audience. In particular, how does film influence an audience’s perceptions of the government? Regardless of the content, research demonstrates that film has the power to shape perceptions of its moviegoers on a range of subjects. In this study, two recent films, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, were chosen as case studies to explore how Hollywood portrays the intelligence community in film and shapes opinions about the government more broadly. This research found that about 25% of viewers of the two films changed their opinion about the government after watching one of the movies. Additionally, many of those changes are reflected in an improvement in the sentiments about the government and its institutions. This exploratory research provokes interesting discussions about the ability of film to influence the perceptions of an audience.

This article describes a simulation designed to teach students about the interests and interactions involved in the international political economy of development. The design and implementation of the simulation are discussed and sample simulation instructions for students are included.

The digital revolution has made it easier for political scientists to share and access high-quality research online. However, many articles are stored in proprietary databases that some institutions cannot afford. High-quality, peer-reviewed, top-tier journal articles that have been made open access (OA) (i.e., freely available online) theoretically should be accessed and cited more easily than articles of similar quality that are available only to paying customers. Research into the efficacy of OA publishing thus far has focused mainly on the natural sciences, and the results have been mixed. Because OA has not been as widely adopted in the social sciences, disciplines such as political science have received little attention in the OA research. In this article, we seek to determine the efficacy of OA in political science. Our primary hypothesis is that OA articles will be cited at higher rates than articles that are toll access (TA), which means available only to paying customers. We test this hypothesis by analyzing the mean citation rates of OA and TA articles from eight top-ranked political science journals. We find that OA publication results in a clear citation advantage in political science publishing.

Political scientists frequently use in-class simulations as teaching tools. However, few such exercises have been developed to assist in teaching pre-modern political theories. This is unfortunate because simulations effectively promote active learning and excite students about course material. This article develops a new simulation to teach Locke's Second Treatise of Government in an introductory general education or political science course. Surveys of participants indicate that the Locke simulation promotes active learning, as well as understanding of course concepts, teamwork, and interest in the material.

Based on a recent survey of political science professors in the United States, women tend to win teaching awards at higher rates than their male counterparts. This may seem like good news for female faculty, particularly amid continuing reports of gender gaps in publications and citations as well as the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon within promotions. However, a closer look at these findings suggests that in cases in which such awards might be most beneficial to women, they are less likely than their male colleagues to receive such acknowledgments. In fact, women are more likely than men to receive these awards only in institutional contexts in which research output is more important for tenure and promotion than teaching. Thus, the achievement of teaching excellence may have an overall negative impact on the advancement of female faculty by reducing their time and focus available for research.

Scholars in the fields of instructional development and pedagogy note that learning outcomes can be improved when teachers use “narratives” to communicate how complex processes work or how problems are addressed. In this article, the authors describe a narrative-centered approach to graduate-level instruction in research methodology. This approach is intended to supplement, not replace, conventional graduate seminars in quantitative or qualitative methods. In a series of lectures, scholars reflected on how their published articles originally were framed, the trade-offs that were necessary to advance the investigation, the methodological challenges and non-findings that had to be addressed—but may not have been printed—and the evolution of a piece as it progressed through the peer-review stages. This approach to exposing graduate students to the entirety of the research process is termed Social Science Mechanics: A Look under the Hood at Innovative Research Designs. Surveys used to evaluate the series confirmed that graduate students who attended the presentations found them to be highly engaging and beneficial. Many faculty members also attended and found the lectures to be equally instructive.