0556	Assessment
Abstract	The content of the abstract is good, the writing could be improved.
Research Question	The research question is clear and well-formed (and repeatedly stated), with one possible exception.  The general literature on IPV suggests the central tendency is for joint variation in the exhibition of physical conflict by spouses (or partners), with important differences involving men more often being the initiators and men more often exhibiting the more extreme forms of violence.  As now written, the proposal is unclear about how the research design will handle the distinction between conflict-ridden couples and couples with abused wives (i.e., asymmetric use of conflict tactics).
Literature Review	This literature review has good coverage and logical coherence.  The draft proposal cites multiple articles concerned with immigrant concentration and IPV, and states that they come to mixed conclusions.  It would help if it described more specifically how their different methods or data sources led them to different conclusions.  The proposal might also refer to this problem when discussing how the project is an improvement on past research. The biggest issue with the literature review is the writing, which makes it somewhat difficult to follow.  Also, the references to "positive" and "negative" relationships between variables are vague, confusing, and seemingly inconsistent.  This may be largely because the directions of the variables is sometimes unclear, and perhaps also because the characterization of "positive" or "negative" appears sometimes to refer to the conceptual level and sometimes to the variables in the data.
Data	If the intended data have sufficient representation of immigrant populations, then they seem a good choice.  Of course, as this is restricted data, getting access to it is the critical problem. The proposal is unclear whether all the needed data on population characteristics are already in the data set or some of it needs to be merged from census data.  This is an important question, because it is likely to add a significant amount of work if you have to merge additional data. As written, the proposed immigration aggregation measure may be problematic.  This draft proposes using the percent foreign-born immigrant residents in a neighborhood cluster as an indicator.  That alone, however, doesn’t take into account whether those immigrants are of the same ethnic background.  So, for example, a Chinese immigrant living in a neighborhood of 90% Ethiopian immigrants may be very isolated compared to another Chinese woman who lives in a neighborhood of 90% Chinese immigrants, but the described measure would have the same value for both women.
Causal Interpretations	The causal discussion seems in good shape for this stage of developing the research project.  If the proposal could clearly and consistently distinguish between the outcomes of conflict-ridden couples and couples where women are victims of unreciprocated partner violence (mentioned above), the causal analysis would improve.  Also, while discussing the mechanisms that might link ethnic residential concentration to patterns of IPV, this aspect might be made more prominent.
Research Value	The assessment of the potential research value is good.
Timetable	The timetable is clear, but the size of this proposed project may make this schedule difficult to achieve.
Citations & Biblio	Excellent.
Quality of writing	The overall organization is fine, but quality of the English prose needs improvement.  In its current form, the grammatical missteps are common and jarring, and occasionally make it difficult to understand.
Priorities for Revising for Final Draft	The overall progress of this proposal is very good.  Three issues stand out.  First, there is a straightforward goal of improving the quality of the writing.  Second, getting assess to the proposed data.  Third, the size of the proposed project is a bit worrying.  While I applaud the ambition that motivates it, I am concerned it will be difficult to complete within the intended time frame.
Miscellaneous Notes