I. BOOKS
A. Political Science: Background information and data sources
Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. 2 vols. Ref. BL65 .P7 E53 2007
Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations. 4 vols. MAIN D860.M56 2002
Statesman's Yearbook - annual publication presenting country data back to the 1920s Ref. JA51.S7 [Old editions kept in Ref Storage]
World Factbook - A CIA publication with lengthy country profiles.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac.- Annual. Ref. JK1.C663 (updated weekly by CQ Weekly Report)
Safire's Political Dictionary. Ref. JK9 .S2 2008
United States Government Manual
CQ's Politics in America - Published every two years. Ref. JK1012.P64
Statistical History of the American Electorate. MAIN JK1967.R87 2001
Book of the State - Published every two years. Ref. JK2403.B6
Municipal Year Book - Annual. Ref JS344 .C5 A24
Legal Systems of the World
Encyclopedia of law & society: American and global perspectives - 3 vols. MAIN K583 .E53 2007
West's Encyclopedia of American Law -13 vols. Ref. KF154 .W47 2005
American Law Yearbook 2008
Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States - Ref. KF8742 .A35 O93 2005
B. Searching for Books in Library Catalogs
Basic Skills sheet - learn strategies (Boolean operators, subject field searching, truncation) to improve your search results
| At Wittenberg: | EZRA |
| At Other Ohio Libraries: | OhioLINK Central Catalog |
| If it isn't available through OhioLINK: | WorldCat (Fill out an Interlibrary Loan form to borrow these) |
II. PERIODICALS
A. Locating an article when you only have a citation:
- At Wittenberg: Use Journals the Library Has to search for the journal title, then use the citation to navigate to the article
To request articles from other libraries: Fill out an interlibrary loan request.
B. Article Databases
| International Political Science Abstracts | Produced by the International Political Science Association, this database includes current indexing and abstracts of the world's leading journals in political science. |
| Political Science Complete | Searches journals, reference books and monographs related to politcal science. Can be searched concurrently with International Political Science Abstracts (above). Click on either database, then click the "Choose Databases" link above the search box. |
Searches magazines like Time, Newsweek, & U. S. News & World Report. Use the menu above the search box to "Search by Subject or Topic ". Useful content types include "Law Reviews" for scholarly articles about legal cases and "All News" to search for magazine and newspaper articles. | |
| JSTOR | A searchable archive. Includes 26 key political science journals, plus scholarly journals in several other fields. Note: Be sure to check more current sources because JSTOR does not contain most recent 2 to 5 years of a given title due to publisher restrictions. |
| Social Science Citation Index (ISI) | Index and cited references for articles in the social sciences. Click the "FindIt!" button to find full text PDF of articles. |
More specialized databases:
| GPO (Government Printing Office) Monthly Catalog | Covers publications by government agencies 1976 to present. Note: Older print indexes going back to 1917 are available in library under the title Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications. |
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| Columbia International Affairs Online- 1991 to present | A full text database on theory and research in international affairs. Includes working papers, journal articles, policy briefs, videos, and books. |
| SocINDEX with Full Text | Index, abstracts, and full text covering sociology. |
| Education Research Complete | Index, abstracts, and full text for professional educators. |
| America History and Life | Covers U.S. and Canadian history and prehistory. |
| Historical Abstracts | Covers world history 1450 to present, excluding U.S. and Canada. |
| New York Times - Historical | Full text of the New York Times from its inception in 1851 through 2009. Current access to the New York Times website is available by creating an account here. |
| Women's Studies International | Indexes multidisciplinary scholarship in feminist research. |
| GenderWatch | Covers articles on gender issues. |
| International Newsstream | Over 1000 newspapers, newswires, and news sites from outside the US and Canada. |
| International Index to Black Periodicals | Interdisciplinary coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. |
| Or - look at the list of All Databases. |
C. News Services
| FindLaw Legal News and Commentary | This free website includes U.S. legal news, documents, laws, cases, and links to media outlets in the U.S. as well as to the English version of numerous foreign newspapers. |
| CNN | News headlines and stories from the Cable News Network. Includes a fairly extensive archive of older stories. |
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III. WEB RESOURCES
A. Statistical Resources (Web and non-Web)
| U.S. Political Stats | A library database containing over 225,000 data series on U.S. politics. |
| ICPSR | The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, based at the University of Michigan "supplies data files for use with statistical software, such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata." |
| Center for American Women and Politics | (CAWP) - From the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, this site has both national and state-by-state statistics on women candidates and officeholders. It also provides information on gender gap and voting behavior. |
| Statistical Yearbook (from the United Nations) | latest edition from United Nations Statistics Division or in print Ref HA12 .5 .U63 |
| Statistical Abstract of the United States | also in print Ref. HA202 |
| Datapedia of the United States 1790-2000 | Ref HA202 .K87 2007 |
| America Votes: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics | (every two years) Ref JK1967 .A6 |
| Bureau of Justice statistics | Collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government |
| The Military Balance | Ref Storage UA15.I65 |
| World Development Indicators | From the World Bank, this database provides comparative economic statistics from around the world. |
| Statistical Insight | Perhaps the best broad-based place to start looking for US statistics. |
| Data.gov | The Data.gov catalog brings together datasets from hundreds of agency sources across the federal government and from 50 non-federal sources. |
| FedStats | This site contains information and statistics compiled by the federal government for public use. |
B. State, County, and Local Web Sites
| City of Springfield OH | Official Web Site |
| State of Ohio Web Site | Has links to information on just about all aspects of Ohio, from legislation to tourism. |
| Pew Center on the States | Identifies and advances state policy solutions. |
| Census of Governments | Administered by the United Census Bureau at five-year intervals since 1957, the Census of Governments contains the official counts of the number of state and local governments, along with tabulations of governments by state, type of government, size, and county location. Includes where to find data on public school systems, special district governments, and general-purpose governments. (Scout Report 2-7-03) |
| NCSL | Site of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Has links to sites on policy issues, state legislatures, and more. |
| National Governors Association | This searchable site is useful for "news of government action and initiatives at the state level." (Choice) |
| NACo: National Association of Counties | Includes links to major topics of interest to county governments. Also includes individual county links that list names & positions of elected county officials. |
C. Web Sites from and about the United States Federal Government
| Congressional Publications | A ProQuest subscription including information on members of Congress, full text of bills, laws, and regulations, and full text of testimony as well as Congressional reports and documents. |
| Open Secrets | This searchable site is from the Center for Responsive Politics, which describes itself as "a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy." |
| FDSys | The Government Printing Office's site for current and historical information from all three branches of the Federal Government. |
| Whitehouse.gov | Use the site map to link to information about the Executive Branch. |
| Supremecourtus.gov | The official Web site of the US Supreme Court, this site documents the processes of the court, including rules, text of opinions, traditions, and more. |
| Library of Congress | National library of the United States. A good starting place for all types of research. |
| Congress.gov | Contains information on bills currently under consideration by the US House and Senate. |
D. International Sites
| Political Resources | Listings of political sites on the internet sorted by country, with links to parties, organizations, governments, media and more from around the world. |
| Foreign Affairs online | A massive web site with several thousand links to important sites for the study of international relations. |
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| CSIS: Center for Strategic & International Studies | "This site focuses on three subject areas: 1) challenges to national and international security; 2) global developments; and 3) developing new methods of governance" (Choice review) |
| Archive of European Integration | The archive "is primarily concerned with collecting official European Community/European Union documents and certain independently- produced research materials." (Scout Report) |
| Europa: Gateway to the European Union | Official website of the European Union - information on agriculture, human rights, employment, public health, economic & monetary affairs |
| Chatham House | organization based in London that works to promote the understanding of key international issues. This site has particularly good links. |
| The United Nations | The United Nations web site offers information on international law, peace and security, humanitarian affairs, human rights, and economic and social development. |
| The World Bank | Research, data and publications on countries and regions worldwide |
| International Monetary Fund | IMFworks to promote international monetary cooperation. This site contain information about this organization, its publications, and funds. |
E. Public Opinion
| PollingReport.com | "An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion." |
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| people-press.org | Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, this database "studies public attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy issues." |
| Gallup Organization | Provides the results of recent Gallup polls and explains how the polls are conducted. |
| Political Communication Lab at Stanford University | This lab conducts experimental work in the area of public opinion and political behavior. |
| Pew Global Attitudes Project | "Global Attitudes Project was created... to gauge public attitudes toward globalization, democracy, and a number of other crucial issues. To accomplish this task, they have conducted over 90,000 interviews in 50 countries...over the past few years." (Scout Report) |
| World Public Opinion.org | "The site provides articles on the results of opinion polls taken around the world on a variety of current issues." (Scout Report) |
IV. DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES
in APSA style
Download the 2018 edition PDF from the American Political Science Association site
Consult the print copy of the APSA style manual in Thomas Library:
Style Manual for Political Science Ref JA86 .A52 2006 - 1 copy in reference
V. PEOPLE RESOURCES
For help contact the Political Science Department's library liaison, Kristen Peters. Or contact the Research Help desk by phone or email.
Originally compiled by Regina Entorf, Wittenberg University Library
Last Updated: 1-31-20/KGP