Find background information for empirical analysis
Find books
Find articles and essays for policy analysis
Tips for effective searching
How do I find a copy of the article?
Internet Sites
Citing sources 

These are only some of the sources that may be useful to you.  Please contact me for help with any of your research, Sylvia Morra, x1452 or email AskUs.

Empirical analysis--Actors, nature, significance, causes, effects, dynamics and trends of the situation.
Find background information
General Subject Specific Encyclopedias listed below have summary articles and bibliographies. Use these sources for preliminary research to establish your topic and aid you in narrowing it. The topic you choose should be one that is significant and can be debated. The more you know about a topic, the easier it will be for you to find good questions to ask in your paper.

CQ Researcher and Global Researcher (varies)
    This online periodical presents excellent pro/con issues on current events.

Congressional Research Service
    Check here for current issues/briefings that were researched for Congress.

The Europa World Year Book. 2 volumes. 2009. Ref 341.84 Eu89 2009
    Provides an excellent political history of countries.

Country Information

Department of State Background Notes
Published U.S. State Department country reports from 2004/2005. Profile includes geography, people, government and political conditions, economy, history, national security, foreign relations as well as travel and business information.

Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations. 4 volumes. 1997. 327.73 En562

Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. 4 volumes. 2003. Ref 341.23 Os83e 2003

Issues
Encyclopedia of World Terrorism. 1997. Ref 303.625 En56.

Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security. 3 volumes. 2004. 327.1203 En56

Encyclopedia of Terrorism. 2002. Ref 303.625 C731e

Books from the High Library on Pro and Con Issues

Normative and Policy Analysis Resources
Get beyond Google by using some of the databases below, which contain both popular and scholarly articles. Although they deliver their content through the web, these databases are paid for through library subscriptions. Information found here would not generally be found for free on the web; articles have been written by subject experts or professional journalists and reviewed by peers and editors.

CQ Researcher and Global Researcher (1991+)
    This online periodical presents excellent pro/con issues on current events.

Academic Search Premier (varies)
     Continue your search in this multi-disciplinary database that indexes 4700 journals. Full text for more than 3600 scholarly journals. Indexing goes back to 1975 for some journals.

SocINDEX with Full Text. (1908+). Articles from over 700 sociological journals, covering topics such as abortion, criminal justice, gender studies, marriage and family, religion and urban sociology.

Humanities International Complete. (1925+). Find articles covering literature, philosophy, the arts, history, and culture.

JSTOR (varies)
    Contains the full-text of articles appearing in the back files (older issues) of 494 scholarly journals, including more than 30 journals in political science .

Lexis Nexis News
    Contains full text newspaper articles. Search world newspapers from countries such as Japan, Korea, and Russia.

Congressional Research Service
    Check here for current issues/briefings that were researched for Congress.

Annual Reviews and other series discuss the latest developments in a particular field.
Click on the link below to search for full text articles on your topic.
Annual Review of Political Science 1998-2005.

Criteria for Scholarly vs. Popular Journals

Tips for effective searching
Be persistent in your searching.

Try both keyword and subject searching.

Narrow a search by using subject headings. ex: International Relations
Locate subject headings by looking at the descriptors associated with pertinent articles and books. 
 Look under the name of the individual countries.  ex: United States--Foreign relations
Use the subdivision of Foreign public opinion under the names of countries or under individual wars. ex: United States--Foreign public opinion

Try these tips to narrow your search?

Try synonyms (NAFTA or North American Free Trade Agreement). Can't think of any synonyms? Try an online thesaurus. Try these tips to expand your search.

Try both singular and plural forms of words. Use an "*" in Academic Search Premier to get a variety of word endings).

If searching a compound word, try it as one word and as two words (e.g. rain forest or rainforest) to see which retrieves the most useful results.

If searching a term with an internal dash, search the term in each database with and without the internal dash (e.g. x-ray vs. x ray) to see which retrieves the most useful results. 

How do I find a copy of the article?
What is available here and now?
Search for full text articles in journals using the following link: Locate E-town Journals.
Type the name of the journal next to 'Find:' and then press 'Search'. Full text can be electronic or within the library in paper, microfiche or microfilm.
Check the publication dates of the article against the listing of years for the database or the years listed 'Within the High Library'. If the database includes those years, click on the link, add in an author's name or title of the article. The full text link should appear at the end of the citation.
    Current year paper issues of journals in the High Library are on the entrance level.
    Older print journals are on Level One, alphabetically by journal title.
    If the journal is in microfiche or microfilm, a copy can be made in the library.  Ask the reference librarian or circulation student assistants for help. Order copies online by using ILLiad   Click on Request an Article and fill out the form. You will receive an email when the article is available on ILLiad for downloading.

What if it is not here?
Order items from another library, if The High Library doesn't own that specific journal or have it for the years that you need it. Requesting the article can be done through the databases or through the following software link: ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan). Allow a minimum of 4-5 working days for the article to arrive.  

Find books
The High Library catalog will help you find books, videos, CDs and other materials.
For books not available at the High Library use WorldCat.

Writing Arguments

Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
   

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant  

Internet Sites
Finding scholarly web sites

Google--Advanced search features
    Use the advanced search features of Google to locate PDF documents, focus on only one type of domain name or direct your search to a title or a specific URL.

Google Scholar
    From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Dogpile
     Search more of the web with a a multi-threaded search engine.

Other internet search engines and directories

Evaluate what you find on the web

To find highly rated academic web sites on specific subjects:
Infomine, Scholarly Internet Resource Collection
Internet Public Library 2
    Created by a merger of Internet Public Library and the Librarians' Internet Index.
WWW Virtual Library
University of Wisconsin Scout Report

The following is a short list of political science related web sites:
Virtual Library: International Affairs
    General Country information and News Source information

Citing sources

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• The High Library
• Sylvia Morra
• Updated: August 2, 2010