Political science is a wide-ranging field with a number of significant subfields, including American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory. There is great variation even within these subfields. For example, scholars in the subfield of International Relations may have interests in war, international organizations, trade (or more broadly, international political economy), ethnic conflict, and/or diplomacy. Political science also has many overlaps with a number of other disciplines, including sociology (e.g., nationalism and social class), economics (e.g., comparative/international political economy), and law (e.g., international law).

Other political science subfield pages that are available:

• American Politics
• Comparative Politics & Foreign Government Information
• International Relations
• Political Theory/Philosophy
• Public Policy and Urban Affairs

*Again, please note that this page focuses on general Political Science resources. For specific data on how to search for (US) government documents, go to the American Politics Guide, Government Documents, and Tracing Federal Legislation.

*A selection of US Government Document materials, both print and electronic, is available as well on the American Politics subject guide.

*For information on the political science (including international studies) program at Emory, please visit the Emory Department of Political Science webpage.

• Back to the Top

• Use dictionaries, encyclopedias, and bibliographies to learn about your topic. This is also a great method to find keywords to use for searching the catalogs and the databases.
• Compile a list of key subjects. Identify the synonyms and variations of your terms.
  A sample topic "learning how executive-legislative relations have affected policy-making in Latin America" could have the following list and/or combinations of possible search terms: presidents, south america, latin america, elections, executive-legislative relations, legislatures, congresses, representation, public policy, etc. Another, more specific example might be searching for for articles/books on the Ecuador-Peru border war. You might combine various keywords such as conflict, war, dispute, Ecuador, Peru, foreign relations, etc.
• Breakup your topic into phrases and single words. If it isn't a phrase don't type it as so. Do not type sentences. Use terms such as AND or OR to separate search terms. This is referred to as Boolean searching. For more help with refining your search in EUCLID, please visit the following link: http://www.library.emory.edu/help.html. Also check the "search tips" on various databases.

Correct search: elections AND Latin America.
Incorrect search: elections in Latin America.

To ensure that an entire phrase is maintained during the search, be sure to place " " around the search terms.

• List synonyms. Separate synonyms by the conjunction OR. Separate the synonyms from the rest of the search terms with parentheses. Otherwise, you can end up with a real mess.

(nationalism OR ethnicity) AND Eastern Europe
(trade or war or dispute) AND Ecuador AND Peru

• To look for variations of a word use a code to trick the computer software into finding them all. These codes are called truncation or wildcard symbols. Use the help screens in each database to find which symbols they use.

elect* and wom?n
This search will find the following terms and possibly others as well: electoral, election, elections; woman, women

• Evaluate your search results. If the search retrieves too many results, you need to narrow your search by adding more search terms or limiting to specific criteria. (Hint: Use AND to narrow topic by adding other terms.)
  If your search retrieves too few articles, then you need to broaden your search by modifying your search terms or strategy. (Hint: Use OR to broaden your search by listing synonyms.)

• Each database is different. The search terms and combinations of terms (and strategies) will vary for each database and catalog. If your search retrieves more than 50 articles you need to narrow your search by adding more search terms. If your search retrieves no articles, then you need to broaden your search.
• Keep a record of what search terms work and which databases work for your topic. This can help you from repeating your steps. Some databases allow you to save your searches, or keep a running tally of searches.
• View the Full Record! There may be search terms (i.e., keywords, subjects, etc.) you're missing. Viewing the full record can help you to cross-reference to other sources.
• Did you find an article you really like? Then, read the cited references (a.k.a. bibliography, end notes, footnotes) to find similar articles.
• Ask for help. Ask a librarian for search tips. Also, use the help screens in the databases for instructions and tips.

Back to the Top

You may "search everything" by keyword to broaden your search to include all fields and get some initial results. Be sure to always click on the "full record" of a particularly interesting item and look at (and/or click on) the subject headings to further your search or make it more precise. Note that if you put two terms together, without separating them by AND, the terms can appear in different fields in the same record. However, if you put the two terms together and do not separate them by AND, the terms must be in the same field (subject, notes, title, etc.).

You may also search within specific fields (subject, title, author, etc.) To combine fields and/or limit your searches to particular libraries, time periods, or locations, you may choose to perform a complex search.

When searching by subject, you may use the Browse search mode. Browsing will retrieve a list of subject headings established by the Library of Congress. A printed, multi-volume set of Library of Congress (LC) subject headings is also available at the Woodruff Library Reference desk. You may also do a keyword search under the subject field. Note that if you put multiple terms together and separate them by "AND" the two terms can appear can appear in multiple lines of the subject field. If the two terms are entered without an AND, the terms must appear in the same line.

Again, for more help with searching EUCLID, go to the following page: http://www.library.emory.edu/help.html

Can't find the book you want? Is it checked out? Is it at Oxford or in Storage?

Click on the Request button at the bottom of the screen while looking at the record in EUCLID. You can RECALL a book, if someone else has checked it out, and within 14 days it should be returned. If it is at Oxford, click on the ATLANTA-OXFORD LOAN option to have it delivered in a day to the library. Click on the STORAGE option to obtain materials that are marked storage. It takes 1 to 2 days to have them delivered to the library.

To find materials not available at Emory, consider using, RLIN or WorldCat , both union catalogs of items held in research and special libraries. To request items not held by Emory, complete the Interlibrary Loan form

As an Emory student, you may borrow materials from Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and the University of Georgia using your EmoryCard.

You may also borrow materials from other local colleges/universities that are part of ARCHE: Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education. Stop by the Woodruff Library Reference Desk for an Interlibrary Use Card.

To obtain materials not available at Emory University you can also palce a request through Interlibrary Loan.

Introduction

Remember, political science is a wide-ranging field. The following is a list of some of the major databases and indexes relevant to political science as taught at Emory. Make sure to look at the Database Locator page for databses related to political disciplines and related disciplines, such as economics, sociology, and history, law, government, and international affairs.

The contents of articles are not searchable in EUCLID. For assistance in how to find a journal article, please see Finding Articles in Woodruff Library. However, you can look up a journal title in EUCLID by searching under "periodical title" to determine if we have access to the journal and whether or not it is available in electronic format. Many databases now have the button. Click on the button to determine whether or not full-text is available for the desired article citation.

Emory University has a large quantity of electronic journals. Check e-Journals@ Emory University Libraries for available titles and whether or not they are available in full-text form. Keep in mind that in a number of cases, there is a one-year or six-month delay on the part of the publisher for accessibility to the full text of the journal.

Also, you should check out the Databases@Emory page, which provides quick and easy access to databases by subject and document type. Records for each of the databases provides information on the nature of the information available (full-text or abstract), the covered years, a brief description, and whether or not the materials are ENDNOTE compatible.

A useful guide to wildcards and truncations in many Emory databases can be found here: http://web.library.emory.edu/subjects/socsci/polsci/truncationguife.pdf

Resource Listings

Political Science Databases

• International Political Science Abstracts (1989-present)
  A bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published throughout the world. The abstracts summarize the source articles. Articles in English are abstracted in English; those in other languages are abstracted in French, with all titles translated into English.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (1967-present)
  Supplies up-to-date bibliographic information and research within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy.

General Social Science Databases

• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (1981-present )
  A bibliographic database compiled by the British Library of Political & Economic Science of the London School of Economics & Political Science. This database contains bibliographic information from an international selection of publications (including over 2600 journals) in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology.
• PAIS International (1915-present)
  Includes bibliographic records from the literature of public policy, social policy and the social sciences from 1915-present. Be sure to choose both the archive and the current index. NOTE: You may also search WORLDWIDE POLITICAL SCIENCE ABSTRACTS via the same database. Be sure to click on "other databases" and then click on the box for WPSA. Types of publications indexed include books, periodicals and selected local, state, national and international government documents.
• Social Sciences Abstracts (1983-present)
  Indexes core periodicals in the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, law and criminology, political science, social work, sociology, and international relations. Print edition is available at : Reference AI3 .I53 (1974-date).
• Web of Science
  A collection of multidisciplinary citation databases. Good for determining who has cited whom--a

---

General Databases

• Academic Search Premier (1984-present for indexing and abstracts, 1990-present for full text, some publications 1960s and 1970s are included.)
  Provides abstracts and indexing for over 3,800, as well as full text for over 3,200 scholarly journals and general magazines.
• Dissertation Abstracts
  Covers dissertations accepted at accredited U.S. institutions since 1861. It selectively covers master's theses, Canadian dissertations, British, and other international dissertations. Abstracts are included for dissertations beginning July 1980 and for master's theses beginning spring 1988. For dissertations done in 1997 and later, PDFs of some titles are available. For dissertations and theses completed prior to those dates, references are given to the print edition of Dissertation Abstracts, American Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Abstracts.
• Hein Online
  Covers pre-1980 legal periodicals including materials not available on LEXIS or WESTLAW. Hein Online includes some of the most prominent legal journals, such as Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Columbia Law Review.
• JSTOR: Arts * Sciences Collections I and II, General Science Collection
  The Journal Storage Project provides access to digitized versions of key journals in various natural and social science fields. Key political science journals located here are American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and World Politics. There are also several area studies journals available. Coverage is quite good, but more recent journal issues are not available.
• Project MUSE
  Provides worldwide, networked, subscription access to the full text of more than 150 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, including many files going back to the mid-1990's. Important political science journals located here include Journal of Democracy, International Security, International Organization, and World Politics.
• ProQuest Research Library

Other Selected Governmental and Political Sources

• Absees Online (1956-present)
  Covers North American scholarship on East-Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and contains bibliographic citations for journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, and selected government publications.
• AccessUN (1946-present)
  Provides fast access to current and retrospective United Nations documents and publications. Articles appearing in United Nations periodicals are individually indexed. Indexing of the bilateral and multilateral treaties in the UN Treaty Series is another unique feature of the Index.
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online (1991-present)
  Publishes a wide range of scholarship, dating from 1991 forward, that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. New material is added to each section of CIAO on a regular basis. Working papers are augmented every month, as are conference proceedings, policy briefs and economic indicators.
• CQ Electronic Library
  CQ Weekly, an online full-text version of the printed CQ Weekly Report which provides authoritative, non-partisan information on congressional activity including legislative voting analysis.
  CQ Researcher, a weekly that summarizes the most current and controversial issues of the day.
  CQ Voting and Elections,provides electoral statistics and analysis for elections at the state and federal levels
  CQ Congressional, an integrated Congressional database which includes numerous encyclopedic entries, legislative entries, legislative policy, histories, statistics, chronologies, biography, electoral records, data, maps, etc.
  CQ Statistical Databases--separates out the statistical components of the other CQ datbases allowing you to perform analysis on supreme court justices, key votes in Congress, election results, etc
  CQ Supreme Court Collection, offers historical analysis and commentary on decisions plus biographical information on justices.
  CQ Public Affairs Collection, public policy information organized by key topics
  CQ Insider, public policy contact information
  Electronic Encyclopedia of American Government, electronic version of the popular A to Z, covering all branches and the election process.
• Economist Country Reports
  Great source for political, economic, and social data for numerous countries. Check here for significant reports on political, economic, and social developments for countries.
• Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Report
  Country Reports analyze political and economic trends in nearly 200 countries. The reports also provide you with basic economic, political, and social data for the country in question. The country reports are frequently updated to reflect political, social, and economic changes affecting the country.
• GPO Access
  GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. This electronic version of the Monthly Catalog is the basic list of government publications. The Web version is updated weekly and provides the most complete bibliographical information for government publications published since January 1994.
• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) (1962-present)
  ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. In addition, ICPSR provides user support to assist researchers in identifying relevant data for analysis and in conducting their research projects.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic
  Full-text access to news, business, medical, educational and legal sources. The sources include international, national, and regional newspapers; magazines; trade journals; newsletters; wire service reports; and transcripts of television and radio news programs.
• LexisNexis Congressional
  An online, full text legislative and regulatory service, published by Congressional Information Service, Inc. (CIS), a leading international publisher of reference, research, and current awareness information products based on information produced by the U.S. government and related information.
• The Nation Historical Archive (1865-present)
  Archive of The Nation--America's oldest weekly magazine.

News Sources

Use the Woodruff Library's Newspaper List to identify newspapers available here.

• Ethnic NewsWatch
  A full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press, published in English and Spanish. A rich collection of articles, editorials, columns, reviews, etc. provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints -- the other sides of the stories.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic
  Full-text access to news, business, medical, educational and legal sources. The sources include international, national, and regional newspapers; magazines; trade journals; newsletters; wire service reports; and transcripts of television and radio news programs.
• National Journal
  includes access to:
  National Journal
  The Hotline
  Markup Reports
  Almanac of American Politics
  Earlybird
  Poll Track
• Economist.com
• New York Times Historical (1851-1999)
  Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. More current issues are available via LexisNexis Academic.
• World News Connection (1994-present)
  An online news service that offers an extensive array of translated and English-language news and information. Formerly known as Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

Back to the Top

The following list is a sampling of possible sources for locating background information and additional sources as well as building a search vocabulary in the discipline. A good one way to locate additional sources is to browse titles in the same general area, both in the Reference collection and in the Stacks.

• Dictionary of Modern Politics, David Robertson
  Reference JA61 .R63 2002
  Newest edition is 2003. Provides brief encyclopedic entries on various political terms. Allows for cross-referencing.
• Dictionary of World Politics
  D419 .K87 2002
• Encyclopedia of Political Thought, Garrett Ward Sheldon, ed.
  Reference JA61. E52 2001
  Brief narratives of important and influential movements, terms, and figures in political thought. Also provides a selection of "further readings" along with each entry.
• Oxford Companion to Politics of the World
  Reference JA61.O95 2001
• Penguin Dictionary of International Relations
  Reference JZ1161 .E94 1998
  A similar one volume set.
• Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations
  Reference JZ1160 .N65 2002
  Four volume set that covers major terminology, concepts, figures, etc. in the area of international relations.
• Encyclopedia of Parliaments and Legislatures
  Reference JF511 .W67 1998
  Excellent resource for data and background on individual legislatures around the world. .
• International Encyclopedia of Elections
  JF1001 .I57 2000
  Arranged by term/figure/issue as related to electoral politics.
• Political Parties of the World
  JF2051.D39 2002
• World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties, 3rd edition
  Reference JF2011 .W67 1999
  Alphabetically arranged by country and includes narrative on System of Government, Electoral System, Party System, Parties, National Prospects, and brief Further Reading entries. New edition appearing in 2005.
• Regional Surveys of the World
  Various reference numbers.
  Invaluable series, divided up by geographical region that provides significant historical background, current poltical and economic developments, statistics, directory (addresses and phone numbers of major political actors and organizations), and bibliography for individual countries in the region.
• Almanac of American Politics (1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002)
  Reference Desk JK1012 .A44 2004
  Latest year is in Reference, earlier editions are located in the stacks. Arranged alphabetically by state includes a narrative essay and information on state government, Congressional members, and districts.
• Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (Sage)
  Reference H62.S34 (3 Volumes)
  Three volume encylcopedia that provides basic as well as advanced discussions of numerous statistical and general research terms commonly used in social science research. Most entries are also accompanied by a bibliography for further reading and discussion. Also allows for term cross-referencing.
• Europa Year Book (1960-present)
  Reference Desk D2 .E821 (current)--online version
  Latest year is in Reference, earlier editions are located in the stacks. Arranged alphabetically by country. The Directory section for each entry includes Constitution, Government, Legislature, Political Organization, Diplomatic Representation, and Judicial System.

Back to the Top