Subject Guides: Political Science Inquiry: Home

Class Activity

Finding Articles: Databases & Indexes

Reference Resources

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of authoritative dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, guides, companions and more from respected publishers across dozens of major subject areas.

Subject-Specific Databases: Political Science

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,600 scholarly journals.
HeinOnline provides topic specific databases including all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, Criminal Justice, Religion and the Law, and Women and the Law among others. Full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase,
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
PAIS Index is an index of scholarship and research in public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations. It contains 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.
PAIS Index combines two databases, PAIS International and PAIS Archive. PAIS International is the electronic version and continuation of the print publications PAIS Bulletin, PAIS Foreign Language Index, and their predecessor titles. PAIS Archive is the electronic version of the print publication PAIS Annual Cumulated Bulletin and its predecessor titles. By combining these two databases, PAIS Index contains all PAIS indexing from 1915 - present.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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.

Think Tank Search

"Think Tank Search is a custom Google search of more than 450 think tank websites. For the purposes of this search, think tanks are defined as institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. Inclusion is based upon the relevancy of subject area to HKS [Harvard Kennedy School] coursework and scholarship, the availability of the think tank’s research in full-text on the website, and the think tank’s reputation and influence upon policy making. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks."
>>See also the "US" and "Non-US" tabs for lists of and links to individual think tanks.

Interdisciplinary Databases

Note: These databases may include both scholarly and popular sources.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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.
ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Citations to scholarly journals in sociology, psychology, political science, health, social work, education, and more. Use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
A full-text database with journal articles and ebooks in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

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.

Finding Polling Information/Sample Survey Questions

American Attitudes: What Americans think about the issues that shape their lives by New Strategist Publications (Editor)
ISBN: 9781935114758
Publication Date: 2010-06-01

American National Election Studies
"Produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation."
Gallup
Presents daily briefings on a single current topic, as well as recent Gallup Poll findings.
Polling Report
Biweekly overview of recent poll trends.
Public Opinion Quarterly -- "The Polls"
Regular feature of preeminent scholarly journal on public opinion and polling, discusses recent surveys. Browse through each issue to access "The Polls" or search across the journal by topic to check for features on your topic.
Google Dataset Search
A new development to help connect users with data sets.

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.

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.