POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH GUIDE

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REFERENCE

Printed Sources

The following is a list of major reference sources available in the Reference Room:

  • Berridge, G. R., and Alan James. A Dictionary of Diplomacy. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
    Ref JZ1405.B47
  • Basic Facts about the United Nations. New York: United Nations, 2004.
    JX1977.A38B37

  • Carlsnaes, Walter, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons, eds. Handbook of International Relations. London: Sage, 2002.
    Ref JZ1242.H365

  • Cook, Chris, and John Paxton. European Political Facts of the Twentieth Century. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
    Ref JN12.C643

  • DeLeon, David, ed. Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994.
    Ref Z7164.S66L43

  • Jones, Andrew. Dictionary of Globalization. Cambridge: Polity, 2006.
    Ref JA327.O3

  • Krieger, Joel, ed. The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
    Ref JA61.O95

  • Schiavone, Giuseppe. International Organizations: A Dictionary and Directory. 6th ed. New York: Palgrave, 2005.
    Ref JZ4838.S344

  • Wiarda, Howard J., ed. Comparative Politics: Critical Concepts in Political Science. New York: Routledge, 2004.
    Ref JF51.C6152

On-line Sources

Here you may find a list of pertinent on-line reference resources.

  • Encyclopedia Britannica gives access to basic reference information.

  • Oxford Reference Onlinecontains dictionaries and other quick reference sources, including quotations, maps, timelines, and illustrations. It also contains subject specific sources, such as dictionaries and companions to political science.

    Note: the links mentioned above work only when you are on-campus. To use these resources from off-campus, start from the databases webpage

 

BOOK SEARCHING

Most of the books on political science can be found on the shelves under the J class, according to the Library of Congress Classification System. In particular the JK section is primarily related to the United States and JN focuses on Europe; books on international relations are gathered under the JZ section.

The Library catalog allows different kind of searches, including Subject Keyword and Subject Browse. A Subject Keyword search will retrieve all the subject strings containing the word you searched for. A Subject Browse search will lead to the controlled subject headings list. Determining which "controlled" subject headings are established for aspects of a topic is an important step in finding relevant material. You may want to browse on the broader subject (e.g. comparative politics) to find out what’s available in the Library.

Some examples of official subject headings and heading patterns are listed below:

 

JOURNALS

Printed Editions

The library subscribes to these printed journals on Political Science in general:

Electronic Collections

A large collection of electronic journals is available through library databases, such as JSTOR, EBSCO (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, and Communication and Mass Media Complete), CIAO, and LEXIS-NEXIS.

These are the most important full-text titles, directly accessible through Journals, A to Z:

 

Newspapers, Magazines and Newswires

For current information, the Library has some printed newspapers (e.g. International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, etc.) and magazines (e.g. Time, Forbes, etc.) and many others are directly accessible through and LEXIS-NEXIS. Under the NEWS section, the database has a large collection of worldwide local newspapers and magazines.
News services and newswires are also available (e.g. ANSA, Associated Press, etc.) together with TV and radio news transcripts (e.g. CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, etc.).

 

POLITICAL SCIENCE ON THE WEB

 

    Last updated: 8-9-2009