I. BOOKS
A. Political Science: Background information and data sources
Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. 2 vols.
Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations. 4 vols.
Statesman's Yearbook - annual publication presenting country data back to the 1920s [Old editions kept in Ref Storage]
- A CIA publication with lengthy country profiles.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac.- Annual. (updated weekly by )
Safire's Political Dictionary.
CQ's Politics in America - Published every two years.
Statistical History of the American Electorate.
Book of the State - Published every two years.
Municipal Year Book - Annual.
Encyclopedia of law & society: American and global perspectives - 3 vols.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law -13 vols.
Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States -
B. Searching for Books in Library Catalogs
Basic Skills sheet - learn strategies (Boolean operators, subject field searching, truncation) to improve your search results
| At 麻豆传媒: | |
| At Other Ohio Libraries: | |
| If it isn't available through OhioLINK: | (Fill out an Interlibrary Loan form to borrow these) |
II. PERIODICALS
A. Locating an article when you only have a citation:
- At 麻豆传媒: Use Journals the Library Has to search for the journal title, then use the citation to navigate to the article
To request articles from other libraries: Fill out an interlibrary loan request.
B. Article Databases
| Produced by the International Political Science Association, this database includes current indexing and abstracts of the world's leading journals in political science. | |
| Searches journals, reference books and monographs related to politcal science. Can be searched concurrently with International Political Science Abstracts (above). Click on either database, then click the "Choose Databases" link above the search box. | |
Searches magazines like Time, Newsweek, & U. S. News & World Report. Use the menu above the search box to "Search by Subject or Topic ". Useful content types include "Law Reviews" for scholarly articles about legal cases and "All News" to search for magazine and newspaper articles. | |
| A searchable archive. Includes 26 key political science journals, plus scholarly journals in several other fields. Note: Be sure to check more current sources because JSTOR does not contain most recent 2 to 5 years of a given title due to publisher restrictions. | |
| Index and cited references for articles in the social sciences. Click the "FindIt!" button to find full text PDF of articles. |
More specialized databases:
| Covers publications by government agencies 1976 to present. Note: Older print indexes going back to 1917 are available in library under the title Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications. | |
| A full text database on theory and research in international affairs. Includes working papers, journal articles, policy briefs, videos, and books. | |
| Index, abstracts, and full text covering sociology. | |
| Index, abstracts, and full text for professional educators. | |
| Covers U.S. and Canadian history and prehistory. | |
| Covers world history 1450 to present, excluding U.S. and Canada. | |
| Full text of the New York Times from its inception in 1851 through 2009. Current access to the New York Times website is available by creating an account . | |
| Indexes multidisciplinary scholarship in feminist research. | |
| Covers articles on gender issues. | |
| Over 1000 newspapers, newswires, and news sites from outside the US and Canada. | |
| Interdisciplinary coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. | |
| Or - look at the list of All Databases. |
C. News Services
| This free website includes U.S. legal news, documents, laws, cases, and links to media outlets in the U.S. as well as to the English version of numerous foreign newspapers. | |
| News headlines and stories from the Cable News Network. Includes a fairly extensive archive of older stories. |
III. WEB RESOURCES
A. Statistical Resources (Web and non-Web)
| A library database containing over 225,000 data series on U.S. politics. | |
| The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, based at the University of Michigan "supplies data files for use with statistical software, such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata." | |
| (CAWP) - From the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, this site has both national and state-by-state statistics on women candidates and officeholders. It also provides information on gender gap and voting behavior. | |
| Statistical Yearbook (from the United Nations) | or in print Ref HA12 .5 .U63 |
| also in print | |
| Datapedia of the United States 1790-2000 | 2007 |
| America Votes: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics | (every two years) |
| Collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government | |
| The Military Balance | |
| From the World Bank, this database provides comparative economic statistics from around the world. | |
| Perhaps the best broad-based place to start looking for US statistics. | |
| The Data.gov catalog brings together datasets from hundreds of agency sources across the federal government and from 50 non-federal sources. | |
| This site contains information and statistics compiled by the federal government for public use. |
B. State, County, and Local Web Sites
| Official Web Site | |
| Has links to information on just about all aspects of Ohio, from legislation to tourism. | |
| Identifies and advances state policy solutions. | |
| Administered by the United Census Bureau at five-year intervals since 1957, the Census of Governments contains the official counts of the number of state and local governments, along with tabulations of governments by state, type of government, size, and county location. Includes where to find data on public school systems, special district governments, and general-purpose governments. (Scout Report 2-7-03) | |
| Site of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Has links to sites on policy issues, state legislatures, and more. | |
| This searchable site is useful for "news of government action and initiatives at the state level." (Choice) | |
| Includes links to major topics of interest to county governments. Also includes individual county links that list names & positions of elected county officials. |
C. Web Sites from and about the United States Federal Government
| A ProQuest subscription including information on members of Congress, full text of bills, laws, and regulations, and full text of testimony as well as Congressional reports and documents. | |
| This searchable site is from the Center for Responsive Politics, which describes itself as "a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy." | |
| The Government Printing Office's site for current and historical information from all three branches of the Federal Government. | |
| Use the site map to link to information about the Executive Branch. | |
| The official Web site of the US Supreme Court, this site documents the processes of the court, including rules, text of opinions, traditions, and more. | |
| National library of the United States. A good starting place for all types of research. | |
| Contains information on bills currently under consideration by the US House and Senate. |
D. International Sites
| Listings of political sites on the internet sorted by country, with links to parties, organizations, governments, media and more from around the world. | |
| A massive web site with several thousand links to important sites for the study of international relations. | |
| "This site focuses on three subject areas: 1) challenges to national and international security; 2) global developments; and 3) developing new methods of governance" (Choice review) | |
| The archive "is primarily concerned with collecting official European Community/European Union documents and certain independently- produced research materials." (Scout Report) | |
| Official website of the European Union - information on agriculture, human rights, employment, public health, economic & monetary affairs | |
| organization based in London that works to promote the understanding of key international issues. This site has particularly good links. | |
| The United Nations web site offers information on international law, peace and security, humanitarian affairs, human rights, and economic and social development. | |
| Research, data and publications on countries and regions worldwide | |
| IMFworks to promote international monetary cooperation. This site contain information about this organization, its publications, and funds. |
E. Public Opinion
| "An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion." | |
| Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, this database "studies public attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy issues." | |
| Provides the results of recent Gallup polls and explains how the polls are conducted. | |
| This lab conducts experimental work in the area of public opinion and political behavior. | |
| "Global Attitudes Project was created... to gauge public attitudes toward globalization, democracy, and a number of other crucial issues. To accomplish this task, they have conducted over 90,000 interviews in 50 countries...over the past few years." (Scout Report) | |
| "The site provides articles on the results of opinion polls taken around the world on a variety of current issues." (Scout Report) |
IV. DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES
in APSA style
Download the 2018 edition PDF from the
Consult the print copy of the APSA style manual in Thomas Library:
Style Manual for Political Science - 1 copy in reference
V. PEOPLE RESOURCES
For help contact the Political Science Department's library liaison, Kristen Peters. Or contact the Research Help desk by phone or email.
Originally compiled by Regina Entorf, 麻豆传媒 University Library
Last Updated: 1-31-20/KGP