Call for interest - MetRiSP Workshop “Methods for Political Science Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

VV
VALERIO VIGNOLI
Mon, Mar 31, 2025 5:03 PM

Call for interest – MetRiSP Workshop

“Methods for Political Science Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

3 September 2025, University of Naples, Naples, Italy

The workshop

This Workshop is a biennial initiative of the Italian Political Science Association’s (SISP) Standing Group on Political Science Research Methods https://standinggroups.sisp.it/metrisp/ (MetRiSP). Now in its fourth edition, the workshop is organized in collaboration with the Standing Group on Government, Parliaments and Representation https://standinggroups.sisp.it/governmentparliamentrepresentation/ (GPR). Its goal is to facilitate an open exchange of ideas among scholars at all stages of their careers. The workshop welcomes the submission of papers that advance key methodological debates to enhance the understanding of political phenomena.

This year’s theme

The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly transforming research areas in political science. Beyond the use of generative models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral) to aid with research design or assist with statistical analyses, AI is opening a vast array of methodological opportunities and challenges. AI not only equips political scientists with tools to extract information from large datasets but also enables researchers to incorporate entirely new sources of data. Moreover, AI has the potential to generate new data or extend and code existing datasets exclusively managed by human coders in the past. These advancements have sparked the interest of political scientists, particularly those engaged in the methodological aspects of the discipline, across both quantitative and, more recently, qualitative traditions, regardless of their substantive research focus.

The fourth MetRiSP Workshop focuses on AI as an integrative and complementary tool that can enhance existing methods. In this context, we invite contributions from scholars with different substantive research interests and at different career stages addressing mainly, but not exclusively, the following questions:

  1. How effective are Large Language Models for classifying texts? Which Large Language Models work better than others, and in which contexts? 
    
  2. How can AI be used to extract information from non-textual types of data such as images and video? 
    
  3. Which tests are more appropriate to assess the performance of these models?
    
  4. How can AI be used to generate synthetic data, and in which context such endeavor is more appropriate?
    
  5. How can AI leverage existing quantitative and qualitative methods?
    
  6. How can AI be integrated in experimental and quasi-experimental research designs?
    
  7. How can AI be employed to develop causal models?
    

Fees and scholarships

Thanks to the generous contributions from SISP, GPR and ECPR’s standing group on Political Methodology https://ecpr.eu/standinggroups/standinggrouphome.aspx?ID=25, the MetRISP Workshop does not charge any fee for participation. Up to five scholarships will be awarded to early-career participants based on the creativity and quality of their proposals, covering part of their travel, accommodation, and living expenses. Additionally, travel grants of up to €200 will be available for senior researchers.

In order to express your interest, please fill the form at the following link before April 28 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSCp4aadbrxnhQDuxaWngRqx7IuYQlH2oH5C0mbQwQkUzypA/viewform?usp=header


Valerio Vignoli
Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Science
Department of Social, Political, and Cognitive Sciences
University of Siena

Call for interest – MetRiSP Workshop “Methods for Political Science Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” 3 September 2025, University of Naples, Naples, Italy The workshop This Workshop is a biennial initiative of the Italian Political Science Association’s (SISP) Standing Group on Political Science Research Methods <https://standinggroups.sisp.it/metrisp/> (MetRiSP). Now in its fourth edition, the workshop is organized in collaboration with the Standing Group on Government, Parliaments and Representation <https://standinggroups.sisp.it/governmentparliamentrepresentation/> (GPR). Its goal is to facilitate an open exchange of ideas among scholars at all stages of their careers. The workshop welcomes the submission of papers that advance key methodological debates to enhance the understanding of political phenomena. This year’s theme The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly transforming research areas in political science. Beyond the use of generative models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral) to aid with research design or assist with statistical analyses, AI is opening a vast array of methodological opportunities and challenges. AI not only equips political scientists with tools to extract information from large datasets but also enables researchers to incorporate entirely new sources of data. Moreover, AI has the potential to generate new data or extend and code existing datasets exclusively managed by human coders in the past. These advancements have sparked the interest of political scientists, particularly those engaged in the methodological aspects of the discipline, across both quantitative and, more recently, qualitative traditions, regardless of their substantive research focus. The fourth MetRiSP Workshop focuses on AI as an integrative and complementary tool that can enhance existing methods. In this context, we invite contributions from scholars with different substantive research interests and at different career stages addressing mainly, but not exclusively, the following questions: 1. How effective are Large Language Models for classifying texts? Which Large Language Models work better than others, and in which contexts? 2. How can AI be used to extract information from non-textual types of data such as images and video? 3. Which tests are more appropriate to assess the performance of these models? 4. How can AI be used to generate synthetic data, and in which context such endeavor is more appropriate? 5. How can AI leverage existing quantitative and qualitative methods? 6. How can AI be integrated in experimental and quasi-experimental research designs? 7. How can AI be employed to develop causal models? Fees and scholarships Thanks to the generous contributions from SISP, GPR and ECPR’s standing group on Political Methodology <https://ecpr.eu/standinggroups/standinggrouphome.aspx?ID=25>, the MetRISP Workshop does not charge any fee for participation. Up to five scholarships will be awarded to early-career participants based on the creativity and quality of their proposals, covering part of their travel, accommodation, and living expenses. Additionally, travel grants of up to €200 will be available for senior researchers. In order to express your interest, please fill the form at the following link before April 28 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSCp4aadbrxnhQDuxaWngRqx7IuYQlH2oH5C0mbQwQkUzypA/viewform?usp=header — Valerio Vignoli Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Science Department of Social, Political, and Cognitive Sciences University of Siena