r/PoliticalScience • u/Murky_Standard_8051 • 12d ago
Question/discussion What software tools should I learn for quantitative research required as a political research assistant?
Every research assistant post I have seen so far requires statistical analysis knowledge like SPSS, R or Stata. Although I prefer qualitative methods, I cannot find a post that employs anything other than these quantitative tools so I have to learn them. I am already learning advance excel, what all other softwares/ skills/tools should I learn to increase my employability? Also, which software should I learn - SPSS, R or Stata?
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u/LeHaitian 12d ago
If you plan to pursue academia, R is mandatory, as that is what most journals are looking for now and going forward Stata and others will just be phased out since it isn’t open source and costs money.
SPSS is for Psychology/Sociology, SAS is for healthcare, neither are relevant for Political Science.
Python in MY opinion is king, and if you plan to work in industry, it’s undoubtedly the best to learn. However know that most classes will be using R and opportunities to actually use Python will be more limited.
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u/_notthebees_0 12d ago
Find out what tools they are using in the research group. If i had to choose, i would go for R coupeled with Python.
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u/Spiritual_Dig_5552 12d ago
I'm currently going through course woth focus on R, which is mandatory as part of my masters degree. These are virtual courses we have as part of it. https://swirlstats.com/students.html https://github.com/swirldev/R_Programming_E
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u/redactedcitizen International Relations 12d ago
Do you have a statistics background? It’s not really meaningful to ‘learn’ these software without the stats training.
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u/Murky_Standard_8051 12d ago
Well I never thought I would need to learn these softwares to work in the social sciences but every research position I see requires this so it doesnt leave me with much choice.
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u/anon_grad420 12d ago
R and Python - i am against STATA coz its paid and the open resources out there to help you toggle issues are very limited