Selected Resources for Poli260:
Research Methods
Research Methods
I. BOOKS
A. Political Science: Background information and data sources
Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. 2 vols. Ref. BL65 .P7 E53 2007
Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations. 4 vols. Ref. D860.M56 2002
Statesman's Yearbook - annual publication presenting country data back to the 1920s Ref. JA51.S7 [Old editions kept in Ref Storage]
World Factbook- A CIA publication with lengthy country profiles.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac. - Annual. Ref. JK1.C663 (updated weekly by CQ Weekly Report)
Safire's Political Dictionary. Ref. JK9 .S2 2008
United States Government Manual
Almanac of American Politics - look for a link to the Almanac at National Journal (Subscriber site)
CQ's Politics in America - Published every two years. Ref. JK1012.P64
Statistical History of the American Electorate. Ref. JK1967.R87 2001
Book of the States - Published every two years. Ref. JK2403.B6 [Old editions kept in Ref Storage]
Municipal Year Book - Annual. Ref JS344 .C5 A24
Legal Systems of the World - 4 vols. Ref. K48 L44 2002
Encyclopedia of law & society: American and global perspectives - 3 vols. MAIN K583 .E53 2007
West's Encyclopedia of American Law - 13 vols. Ref. KF154 .W47 2005
American Law Yearbook 2008
Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States - Ref. KF8742 .A35 O93 2005
B. Locating Books in Library Catalogs
Basic Skills - strategies to improve your search results (Boolean operators, subject field searching, truncation)
| At Wittenberg: | EZRA |
| At Other Ohio Libraries: | OhioLINK Central Catalog |
| If it isn't available through OhioLINK: | WorldCat (Fill out an Interlibrary Loan form to borrow these) |
II. PERIODICALS
A. Locating an article when you only have a citation:
-
At Wittenberg: 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
| International Political Science Abstracts | Produced by the International Political Science Association, this database includes current indexing and abstracts of the world's leading journals in political science. |
| Lexis-Nexis Academic | Searches magazines like Time, Newsweek, & U. S. News & World Report. Select the "News" button on the left, then select "Newspapers & Wires". From the search screen, you can Select Source(s) to limit your search to only US Newspapers & Wires or to Small Town Papers (US). The US Legal button will give you a menu to help you find court cases, statutes, codes, regulations
and law reviews. |
| JSTOR | 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. |
| Social Science Citation Index (ISI) | Index and cited references for articles in the social sciences. Follow "FindIt!" button to find full text PDF of articles. |
More specialized databases:
|
GPO (Government Printing Office) Monthly Catalog
|
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. |
|---|---|
| Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)- 1991 to present | A full text database on theory and research in international affairs. "Includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences", as well as journal articles. |
| SocINDEX with Full Text | Index, abstracts, and full text covering sociology. |
| Education Research Complete | Index, abstracts, and full text for professional educators. |
| America History and Life | Covers U.S. and Canadian history and prehistory. |
| Historical Abstracts | Covers world history 1450 to present, excluding U.S. and Canada. |
| New York Times - Historical | Full text
of the New York Times from its inception in 1851 through 2009. 1980 to the present available through Lexis-Nexis. |
|
Women's Studies International |
Indexes multidisciplinary scholarship in feminist research. |
| GenderWatch | Covers articles on gender issues. |
| International Index to Black Periodicals | Interdisciplinary coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. |
Or - look at the list of All Databases. |
C. News Services
(Some are subscription resources and some are not.)| National Journal | Much more than just the text of the National Journal magazine, this searchable site provides poll results and almanac information as well. |
| World News Connection | Was FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service), which covers all areas of the world. |
|---|---|
| FindLaw Legal News and Commentary | 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. |
| CNN | News headlines and stories from the Cable News Network. Includes a fairly extensive archive of older stories. |
| News and Newspapers Online | Maintained at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, this site lists online newspapers |
| IPL Online Newspapers | a similar list of newspapers by the Internet Public Library |
III. WEB RESOURCES
A. Statistical Resources (Web and non-Web)
| ICPSR | 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." |
| Center for American Women and Politics | (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) |
latest edition from United
Nations Statistics Division or in print Ref HA12 .5 .U63
|
| Statistical Abstract of the United States | also in print Ref. HA202 |
| Datapedia of the United States 1790-2000 | Ref HA202 .K87 2007 |
| State Rankings | Ref HA203 .U17 2005 |
| America Votes: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics | (every two years) Ref JK1967 .A6 |
| Bureau of Justice statistics | Collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government |
| World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers | Ref. JX1974.A1 U52 |
| The Military Balance | Ref. UA15.I65 |
| World Development Indicators | From the World Bank, this database provides comparative economic statistics from around the world. |
| Statistical Insight | Perhaps the best broad-based place to start looking for US statistics. |
| FedStats | This site contains information and statistics compiled by the federal government for public use. The Statistical Abstract of the United States is only one of the online resources contained here. |
| U.S. Congress Votes Database | From
the Washington Post, this database "contains the results of every vote
cast in the Congress since 1991. Visitors can look at vote results in a
variety of different ways, such as particular Congress or a particular
individual. . . [and] 'Votes by Type', such as those cast on
impeachments, treaties, and vice-presidential tiebreakers." (Scout
Report) |
B. State, County, and Local Web Sites
| City of Springfield OH | Official Web Site |
| State of Ohio Web Site | Has links to information on just about all aspects of Ohio, from legislation to tourism. |
| Pew Center on the States | Identifies and advances state policy solutions. |
| Census of Governments | 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) |
| NCSL | Site of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Has links to sites on policy issues, state legislatures, and more. |
| National Governors Association |
This searchable site is useful for "news of government action and
initiatives at the state level." (Choice) |
|
NACo: National Association of Counties |
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
|
Congressional Publications |
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. |
|
The U.S. Congress Votes Database |
"Updated daily, [this database] contains roll-call votes from
1991 to the present. Current votes are searchable by member names, state, or...topics... There is also a list of
representatives who have the highest number of missed roll-call votes." (Choice) |
|
Open Secrets |
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." |
| FDSys
|
The Government Printing Office's site for current and historical information from all three branches of the Federal Government. |
| Federal Citizen Information Center | Helps when you just can't find the information you need. |
|
Whitehouse.gov |
Use the site map to link to information about the Executive Branch. |
| US Legislative Branch | Information on all aspects of the legislative branch of the US government both current and historical. |
| Supremecourtus.gov | 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. |
| Library of Congress | National library of the United States. A good starting place for all types of research. |
| THOMAS: Legislative Information | THOMAS contains information on bills currently under consideration by the US House and Senate. |
D. International Sites
|
Political Resources |
Listings of political sites on the internet sorted by country, with links to parties, organizations, governments, media and more from around the world. |
| Foreign Affairs online | A massive web site with several thousand links to important sites for the study of international relations. |
|---|---|
| CSIS: Center for Strategic & International Studies | "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) |
|
Archive of European Integration
|
The
archive "is primarily concerned with collecting official European Community/European Union documents and certain independently- produced research materials." (Scout Report) |
|
Europa: Gateway to the European Union |
Official website of the European Union - information on agriculture, human rights, employment, public health, economic & monetary affairs |
| Chatham House | organization based in London that works to promote the understanding of key international issues. This site has particularly good links. |
| The United Nations | The United Nations web site offers information on international law, peace and security, humanitarian affairs, human rights, and economic and social development. |
| The World Bank | Research, data and publications on countries and regions worldwide |
| International Monetary Fund | IMF
works to promote international monetary cooperation. This site contain
information about this organization, its publications, and
funds. |
E. Public Opinion
| PollingReport.com | "An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion." |
|---|---|
| people-press.org | Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, this database "studies public attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy issues." |
| Gallup Organization | Provides the results of recent Gallup polls and explains how the polls are conducted. |
|
Political Communication Lab at Stanford University |
This lab conducts experimental work in the area
of public opinion and political behavior. |
| Pew Global Attitudes Project
|
"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) |
| World Public Opinion.org
|
"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 2006 edition PDF from the
American Political Science Association site
Consult the print copy of the APSA style manual in Thomas Library:
Style Manual for Political Science Ref JA86 .A52 2006 - 1 copy in reference
V. PEOPLE RESOURCES
For help contact the Political Science Department's library liaison, Kristen Peters. Or contact the reference desk by phone or email.
Return to: Thomas Library Main Page
Originally compiled by Regina Entorf, Wittenberg University Library
Last Updated: 2-5-13/KGP