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In 1997, when first starting conducting field research in Buenos Aires, Argentina, something dawned on her pretty quickly. She wasn糖心传媒檛 getting anywhere fast.

As a graduate student with no established reputation in the field and little experience, doors didn糖心传媒檛 exactly fly open. Studying one of the most politicized institutions in Argentina糖心传媒攖he Argentine Supreme Court糖心传媒� she often didn糖心传媒檛 even know which ones to knock on.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 very unusual for a young American woman to go to the Supreme Court and ask them what they糖心传媒檙e doing,糖心传媒� says Helmke, who two decades later now chairs the University of Rochester糖心传媒檚 .

Scholarly research in the library is one thing. In the field, it糖心传媒檚 quite another. As Helmke would soon learn, in a country like Argentina, she first needed to gain access to the right political networks in order for its key members to help open doors for her, point her in the right directions. Even looking the part became important. Her student outfit糖心传媒攋eans, a backpack, and tennis shoes糖心传媒斕切拇�媒渏ust didn糖心传媒檛 cut it.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淭o be taken seriously by local elites you need to wear heels, and a suit, carry a bag,糖心传媒� Helmke says. 糖心传媒淵ou need business cards.糖心传媒�

Unlike doing research in the Unites States, which generally offers easy access to government data, trying to so the same in developing nations, can prove tricky.

Helmke got to talking with her former PhD student, Rabia Malik, now a postdoc at New York University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. 聽Turns out, Malik, faced very similar difficulties.

糖心传媒淎ny time I went to a government office in Pakistan, my dad, a former BBC journalist, had to accompany me and introduce himself there first, because without that no one was going to talk to me or respond to my inquiries,糖心传媒� Malik says. Frequently she was told by government officials that the documents she requested were unimportant and that she might want to change the focus of her research.

Connection with scientists conducting field research

That糖心传媒檚 when the two women started brainstorming: what糖心传媒檚 the best way to connect with other social scientists on the ground, or those planning to go to the same locale?

The idea of an interactive tool began to take shape in their minds. Helmke, Malik, and current Rochester PhD student YeonKyung Jeong envisioned a website that would track social scientists conducting international field work. On a practical level, being able to glean tips from others means not having to constantly reinvent the wheel.

糖心传媒淓specially when it’s your first field research, you have a very limited amount of information about the field country,糖心传媒� explains Jeong. 糖心传媒淵ou have to spend a lot of time and effort learning about the country, which makes your field research inefficient.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淰ery inefficient,糖心传媒� Helmke adds, laughing. It took her about five months to obtain the Argentine court documents she was tracking down.

糖心传媒淪omething like this would have allowed me to ask other scholars basic questions that might have sped up my efforts by months,糖心传媒� Helmke says with 20/20 hindsight.

The team recently premiered a beta version of their new website, called In The Field_Political Science, at a conference on the River Campus. Essentially an interactive world map, the website will be searchable by country, city, topic, name of researcher, or institution.

Created with the programming and coding assistance of Nora Dimmock, Blair Tinker, and Josh Romphf of the , the website糖心传媒檚 purpose is to foster collaboration among social scientists, make research more efficient, and help advisors plan research trips for graduate students.

Feedback from other political scientists

Listening to the team糖心传媒檚 presentation was Eddy Malesky, a political science professor at Duke University. He laments receiving e-mails that frequently ask similar questions, such as which survey firms to work with in a certain country. Malesky says he糖心传媒檇 love to see a list of survey firms listed by country, and rated and ranked by researchers who have worked with them. Users could even include warnings such as 糖心传媒渢his firm forgot my show cards. This firm, I think, is massaging the data,糖心传媒� Malesky suggests.

Diana Kapiszewski, associate professor in the department of government at Georgetown University, says the site would make it easier to find collaborators, which could increase funding chances. She also suggests including specific country tips and answers to frequently asked questions, written by experts.

Jason Lyall, associate professor of political science at Yale University, hopes Helmke糖心传媒檚 team will include pre-research announcements糖心传媒斕切拇�媒淪o, you don糖心传媒檛 get to that country and find someone else is already four or five years deep into the same research.糖心传媒�

Test driving the website

The website is in the pilot stage; the researchers and programmers are still fixing glitches, and are looking for more input from colleagues.

Helmke says the plan is to reach out to faculty and graduate students at several universities in order to populate the website before it goes live. 糖心传媒淢y guess is we would ultimately have something like 500 to 1,000 users in the political science community, which would expand as we extend to other social sciences.糖心传媒�

Helmke, who has done extensive research in Argentina and Ecuador, hopes to find on the website information that would be useful to her in her role as advisor.

糖心传媒淚 feel very comfortable sending students to countries I am familiar with in Latin America, but it is challenging to advise students studying in parts of the world where I have few or no contacts,糖心传媒� she says.

Both Malik and Helmke say they are ready to pass on what they have learned the hard way in the field.

糖心传媒淒on糖心传媒檛 lose hope if your emails to Pakistani government offices and politicians go unanswered.糖心传媒� Instead, Malik advises, go and visit them personally. 糖心传媒淭hey’ll be much more receptive.糖心传媒�

Malik also realized something surprising: being underestimated is not necessarily a bad thing.

糖心传媒淪ometimes interviewees will give you more information because they don’t tend to see young female interviewers as aggressive or threatening,糖心传媒� Malik found. 糖心传媒淚 never consciously tried to come across as quiet or unaggressive, but realized that being polite and passive often meant that I got to hear many more stories about corruption and the like.糖心传媒�

The website is slated to go live later this year. Interested scholars can e-mail Gretchen Helmke with suggestions and questions.