Request for Proposals: Contract Research Assistants

PAX Sapiens • Broomfield, CO

6d

About The Position

PAX sapiens is seeking 1–2 Research Assistants (RAs) to support the data collection phase of a social network analysis study mapping collaborative ties among China policy experts at major U.S. think tanks. This project applies social network analysis (SNA) to a dataset of China studies professionals across leading U.S. think tanks. RAs will manually identify and record collaborative events—co-authored publications, congressional hearings, taskforce memberships, and conference panels—in which two or more individuals from our sample participated. The resulting structured dataset will power a network analysis examining how collaboration, expertise, and institutional ties shape the U.S. China policy community.

Requirements

• Currently enrolled in or recently completed a graduate program in political science, international relations, China studies, public policy, or a related field. Advanced undergraduate students with relevant research experience will also be considered.
• Meticulous attention to detail in structured data entry; ability to apply consistent classification rules across large volumes of records.
• Proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Strong reading comprehension in English; ability to quickly assess whether a publication or event falls within defined scope criteria.
• Ability to work independently and meet weekly submission targets with minimal supervision.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with U.S.-China relations, U.S. think tank landscape, or congressional processes is strongly preferred.
• Experience with CSV-based data workflows is a plus.
• Experience with R is advantageous but not required.

Responsibilities

• Search individual researcher pages on assigned think tank websites (e.g., CSIS, Brookings, CFR, RAND, Carnegie) to identify co-authored reports, briefs, and articles with China-related content published between 2015 and 2025.
• Search congressional hearing records on congress.gov to identify hearings on China-related topics at which two or more sample members testified.
• Identify taskforce and working group memberships published on think tank websites where two or more sample members appear.
• Record all findings in two structured spreadsheet templates (events registry and participant log) following a detailed data entry protocol provided by the research team.
• Cross-reference all identified individuals against the project's master person list to assign correct person IDs; flag ambiguous matches for supervisor review.
• Participate in weekly team check-ins to discuss progress, resolve data entry questions, and ensure consistency across team members.
• Conduct a self-quality check against a provided checklist before submitting each batch of data.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Associate degree