Subject Guides: Introduction to Comparative Government and International Relations (Hashim): Home

Selected Reference Materials

Credo Reference
Hundreds of authoritative dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, guides, companions and more from respected publishers across dozens of major subject areas.

CIA World Factbook
Fact sheets by country.
The Europa World Year Book
Information by country on a variety of topics, including: contemporary political history, constitution and government, economic affairs, and more.
Political Handbook of the World
Information by country on a variety of topics, including: government and politics, constitution, foreign affairs, political and opposition parties, and more.
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets

OTHER WEBSITES: Governments and International Organizations

United Nations
International Monetary Fund
International Court of Justice
World Bank Group
"The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development."
Economic Community of West African States
European Union
Organization of American States
"Today, the OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere. In addition, it has granted permanent observer status to 69 states, as well as to the European Union (EU)."

OTHER WEBSITES: Metasites

Foreign Affairs Online
Includes annotated links to the following topics: US Government, Foreign States, UN, NGOs & IGOs, International Law, Human Rights, International Realations, Think Tanks and the Digital Divide.
WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
Compiled by a professor of International Studies at Elizabethtown College, this gateway site is organized into helpful categories. It contains a great depth of high quality information and it has been reviewed and highly ranked by several respected Social Science sources.
Political Resources on the Net
Organized geographically, this site asks you to choose a region, then a country to research its politics. This arrangement makes it easy to compare to countries within a region, or to compare two regions against one another.

Finding Articles: Databases & Indexes

Core Recommended Databases

Academic Search Complete
A database of both scholarly and popular publications in a wide variety of disciplines and subject areas, including psychology. Most full text is linked directly in the database; otherwise use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.
PAIS
Citations from scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters, policy briefs, government publications, and more from on domestic and international political, economic, social and public policy issues. Use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Citations from scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters, policy briefs, government publications, and more in political science and complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. Use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.

Other Recommended Databases

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
A database of scholarly journal articles, working papers, policy briefs, conference proceedings, and more in the area of international affairs theory and research. Full text is linked directly in the database.
JSTOR
A substantive archive of about 3,000 full text scholarly journals plus scholarly books in the arts, humanities, social sciences and biological sciences. As an archive, there is typically a lag time of 3-5 years from publication until new issues appear in JSTOR. Journals include core titles from a variety of disciplines: history, economics, biology, and more.
OmniFile Full Text
A database of scholarly and non-scholarly journals covering various subjects including general sciences, humanities, social sciences, and business. Most full text is linked directly in the database; otherwise use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.

News

International Newsstream
Provides full text news information from more than 660 of the world's top newspapers from all continents, including The Times (London), The Bangkok Post, Folha de Sao Paulo, El Norte, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, South China Morning Post, Asian Wall Street Journal. Does not include newspapers from within the United States.
Global Newsstream
Provides full text access to current and recent archives of major daily news publications, regional, and local news resources in the US & Canada, plus over 800 more from around the globe. Publication types include newspapers, newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites.

Legal Information

Legal Information Institute (Cornell University Law School)
"The LII collection of world legal materials gathers, country by country, continent by continent, the Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and related legal material from around the globe (excluding the U.S. material held in the LII's other collections). It also holds resources and document collections of International law. "

ProQuest Congressional
Information from the U.S. legislature, including full text of bills from 1989 on, public laws from 1988 on, committee reports from 1990 on, House and Senate documents from 1995 on, Congressional Record from 1985 on, Federal Register from 1980 on, and more government information.

World Legal Information Institute

Finding Books

Encompass Search finds information by searching through a massive collection of books, scholarly journals, newspapers and magazines, dissertations, conference proceedings, music, video, maps, and more.

To find only books, use the Books limit on the left sidebar of your search results page. Many items will be in Trexler Library; note the call number and status of the item to check its location and availability. For items not in Trexler Library, use the Interlibrary Loan to request a copy from another library.

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Popular v. Scholarly sources

Citing Your Sources

Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.)
Find in print- Ready Reference 808.027 C632m

Up-To-Date Trexler Library Reference

Zotero
"Free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources." Download instructions and help available on the site.

How do I get the full text of my article?

To get the full text of an article, consider the following options:

- If you are in Encompass Search or a library database, look for "Check for Full Text buttons," "Access Online," or "Check eResources" buttons. These buttons will take you the full text of the article or tell you that the full text cannot be found. If the full text is not available from Trexler Library, look for buttons to request the item from another library via interlibrary loan. Or go directly to the interlibrary loan request forms.

- If you have citation information for the article (i.e., journal title, article title, publication year, etc.), type the information about your article in Encompass Search on the library website. If the library subscribes to the full text, you will be directed to the article (see first bullet above). If not, you can request a copy of the article via interlibrary loan.

- If Trexler Library does not have access to the full text of the article, search Google Scholar by article title to see if the author has made a copy freely available online. If not, you can request a copy of the article via interlibrary loan.

Help with Annotated Bibliographies

Writing Annotated Bibliographies (Trexler Library, Muhlenberg College)

Annotated Bibliographies (Purdue University)

Annotated Bibliographies (Writing Center, University of Wisconsin--Madison)