Political Science Research Guide

Most of the databases below default to an Advanced Search. Advanced searching is not difficult. It just gives you more options, more flexibility in setting up your search. If you click into a database that defaults to basic search (just a single search box), clicking Advanced will give you better control over your search.

Type your search term or terms in the search box on the left (see the box above for making effective use of and, or, the wild card). In the drop-down menu on the left, instead of the default, Anywhere (or some databases will say All Fields, Keyword, etc.), you can select a specific field to search. Especially if you need something relatively specific, this is often a more productive search strategy. For example, if you're looking for articles by a certain author, type his/her "last name, first name" in the first search box and select the Author field in the drop-down to the left. In the second box, you could select to search Anywhere, in the Title, in the Abstract, etc.

If you're searching by topic, searching by the Subject field in the drop-down menu will give your search more focus, specificity. A good strategy is to start out with a well thought out Anywhere/keyword search. Then look at the records of the articles that you think will be helpful. You can click one of the subject headings and search just one subject, but often that's too broad, will get you hundreds, even thousands of articles. Instead, try a subject in the first search box, terms Anywhere in the second; or search two subjects; or a subject in the first search box and an author in the second. Try different combinations of terms and fields and see what works best for your research.

To see the full list of databases, from the Libraries homepage, click on Databases under QuickSearch, then choose Political Science under Subject and click Apply.

Important databases for political science research are:

• Politics Collection is a suite of four databases in political science. You can search across all four, or search them individually. It includes:
  • PAIS (Public Affairs Information Services): public policy broadly conceived; articles, books, government documents, and more, 1915 to the present.
  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and more, 1909 to the present.
• Westlaw: General news, law reviews, plus extensive legal material: state and federal laws, court decisions, regulations, etc. All fulltext.

Other important Databases:

• CQ Researcher: substantial reports and analysis of current issues, 1923 to the present.
• Exploring Race in Society: Both primary and secondary sources, covering the twentieth and twenty-first century.
• GenderWatch: Popular and scholarly literature; family studies, LGBTQ+ studies, men’s studies, as well as women’s studies; 1970 to the present.
• HeinOnline: Every North American law review journal back to the first issue (for the most recent articles, use Westlaw Campus Research), plus a wide range of specialized legal, legislative databases, including, for example, Civil Rights & Social Justice and Voting Rights & Election Law.
• LAPOP (Latin American Public Opinion Project): Data from annual surveys of political and social attitudes, as well as economic and demographic characteristics. 2004 to the present.
• Latinobarometro: Annual surveys. Data on political and social attitudes; economic and demographic characteristics. 1995 to present.
• Policy File: Public policy research reports from over 350 think tanks, advocacy groups, etc. Part of the Politics Collection suite of databases.
• PolicyMap: An online data and mapping application. More than 10,000 variables relating to social and economic characteristics. Map to state, city, zip code, etc. Also reports, charts, tables, etc. Mostly 2004 to the present.
• ProQuest Political Science: Fulltext access to roughly 500 political science journals. Part of the Politics Collection suite of databases.
• Sage Research Methods: Books, videos, case studies, practice datasets; also project-planning features, such as a Project Planner and a Methods Map.
• Sage Campus: Self-paced courses covering all aspects of the research and publication process, including critical thinking, methods and research skills, data analysis, and more. For a range of researchers, undergraduates to faculty.
• Social Explorer: Browse or produce maps and tables from Census Bureau data and other sources. Includes the Decennial Census back to 1790.
• Women's Studies International: Gender across the disciplines. From scholarly was well as advocacy and community publications.

• Access World News: newspapers, broadcast transcripts, etc. in English from around the world; all full text, user-friendly search interface
• Alternative Press Index: More than 300 international journals, magazines, and newspapers offering an alternative, radical, or left perspective
• Ethnic NewsWatch: ethnic, minority and native press
• Factiva: includes some titles not available elsewhere, including New York Times
• Newspaper Source Plus: newspapers, broadcast transcripts, etc. in English from around the world; all full text, user-friendly search interface
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers: six major U.S. newspapers; dates of coverage vary; New York Times  three year prior to current year
• ProQuest Recent Newspapers: U.S. Northeast: eleven titles, including  the Home News Tribune; current three months not included
• Westlaw: click the News link from the initial search page

• American State Papers: Fulltext of executive and congressional material, 1789-1838
• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications: Everything published by the federal government back to 1976; print version in Alexander Government Documents (GP 3.8) goes back to 1895; Government Documents collection has print documents not available in fulltext
• Congress.gov: Formerly Thomas, the official site for federal legislative material. Bills, committee reports, summary and status of legislation and more
• CQ Almanac: Reports on elections, legislation, and more, tracks issues chronlogically in the US Congress
• CQ Researcher: substantial research reports and analysis of current political issues, 1923 to the present.
• Declassified Documents Reference System: Full text of documents declassified by the federal government; mostly post World War II
• govinfo: Formerly GPO Access, provides full text of documents from the Government Printing Office: Congressional material, court opinions, federal agency documents, Public Papers of the Presidents and more
• LLMC (Law Library Microform Consortium Digital): US and non-US primary sources, originally preserved in microfilm or microfiche; large, eclectic collection; sources range from to the bulls of Pope Benedict XIV to the compiled laws of the Muskogee Nation, 1890
• ProQuest Congressional: full text of House and Senate hearings, 1824-present; reports and documents, 1970-present; Federal Register and Congressional Record, 1985-present; and lots more
• ProQuest Legislative Insight: Legislative histories, bills and other material related to laws passed (or not passed) by the US Congress, 1790-1917
• US Congressional Serial Set: full text of House and Senate reports, documents and more, 1817-1980

Some other databases that are often useful for political scientists:

• Academic Search Premier: broad, multidisciplinary article database; popular and scholarly; lots of fulltext
• America: History & Life: articles, secondary sources, US and Canadian history
• Communication and Mass Media Complete: communication and media studies
• Country Watch: fulltext political, economic, cultural, business, and environmental information on 192 countries        
• Criminal Justice Abstracts: criminal justice and criminology
• EconLit: economics
• ERIC: education
• Exploring Race in Society: resources on race, ethnicity, diversity in U.S. society in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as broader historical context.
• GenderWatch (1970-present): Gender across the disciplines. From scholarly was well as advocacy and community publications.
• Historical Abstracts: non US history back to 1450, articles, secondary sources
• PsychInfo: psychology
• Sociological Abstracts: sociology
• JSTOR: Very useful database because it has excellent chronological coverage, back to the first volume of all of the journals indexed. All searchable fulltext. But for many journals, JSTOR does not have current articles, and it only indexes a relatively small of journals in political science. See Databases for Political Science and Legal Research above to search a more comprehensive collection of journals and more recent scholarship. Why limit your search to articles in fairly limited number of journals? Why not search for current scholarship?

For databases to find and use data, check out these research guides. For a full list of all the databases, see the Databases page.

Many of the records of the articles you find in the databases to the right will have direct links to the fulltext of the article. If not, click on Get It @ R. Get It @ R will (usually) provide a link to full text outside of the database. If you don't see a link to full text, click Sign-In, then Article Delivery. We'll provide a PDF copy, usually within a day.