Political Science

Guide to Political Science library research

Getting Started

Think about what you are trying to research in Political Science. Deciding on your research topic will give you a jumping-off point to dig deeper.

For more information about finding your research topic, see Choosing a Research Topic in our Research Essentials Guide.

For more information about the research process, visit the Research Essentials Guide.

Once you have your research topic, it's time to dive into the literature. Determine some keywords that describe the most important concepts for your topic, and use those keywords to search for articles, books, or other materials that cover your topic.

Using Boolean operators along with your keywords, such as AND or OR, can also help you refine your search.

For a deeper dive into finding sources for your topic, see Finding Books and Articles in our Research Essentials Guide.

As you find materials to help you in your research, you may start to find that you are drifting away from your original research topic. That's okay! This can be a great chance to refine your topic. If you look for materials on your topic and have a hard time finding much research on it, or finding conclusive research, that might be a sign that you can fill a gap in the field's knowledge by collecting your own data.

At this point it is also a great idea to sit back and take stock. Always remember to evaluate your sources, and reach out if you still need help.

Key Journals in Political Science

Where Are the Library Books related to Political Science?

320 Political Science
321 Systems of governments and states
322 Relations of state to organized groups
323 Civil and Political Rights
324 The Political Process
325 International migration and colonization
326 Slavery and emancipation
327 International Relations
328 The legislative Process

The 320's (books on political science) are found in Ryan Library, 3rd Floor, South Wing.
The 900's (books on history, including political science) are found in Ryan Library, 2nd Floor, West Wing.

Find Articles and Other Resources

eBook Collection on EBSCOhost
Reference books, scholarly monographs, novels, manuals, etc. available in ebook format.
OAPEN (Open Access)
OAPEN is dedicated to open access, peer-reviewed books. The Knowledge Unlatched (KU) collection available on the platform contains over 4000 titles covering topics in the Humanities (History, Philosophy, Religious Studies), Social Sciences (Politics, Psychology) and Business from scholarly publishers including Duke University Press, University of Michigan Press, and University Press of Colorado.
Directory of Open Access eBooks
Portal to discover peer reviewed books published under an Open Access license. Provided by the Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) Foundation.
Springer Open
This portal searches a collection of fully open-access peer-reviewed journals, as well as some open-access ebooks which are available through Springer.
Gale eBooks
Ebook versions of encyclopedias and reference works covering most subjects, as well as a collection of classic literature and criticisms.
ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB)
Ebooks in the humanities representing disciplines such as politics, history, philosophy, religion, literature, etc
Very Short Introductions: Politics
Very Short Introductions are ebooks that offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas.

Flipster Digital Magazines
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)
International Newsstream
Provides the most recent news content outside of the US and Canada, with archives which stretch back decades featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites.
U.S. Major Dailies
U.S. Major Dailies provides access to U.S. national and regional newspapers, including Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
Newspaper Source Plus
Newspaper Source Plus provides a full-text digital collection of the world's major news content. It includes millions of articles from newspapers, newswires and news magazines. In addition, it offers television and radio transcripts and ongoing daily updates from popular news sources. (Insights enabled)
US Newsstream
US Newsstream enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format.
News (Gale OneFile)
Provides access to more 1,000+ major U.S. regional, national and local newspapers as well as leading titles from around the world.
CQ Researcher

U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)

Gale Primary Sources
This tool creates a federated (shared) search across all primary resources from one vendor to include: Archives Unbound: Testaments to the Holocaust, 18th Century Collections Online, 19th Century UK Periodicals, Chatham House Online Archive, The Making of the Modern World, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, and Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
This collection is devoted to the scholarly study and understanding of slavery from a multinational perspective. Iona has access to collections 1(Debates ), 2 (Slave Trade), 3 (Institution) and 4 (Emancipation).
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1
Journals and magazine published from 1691 through 1820 representing print culture from early colonial imports to titles published on American soil during the Revolution and early republic
Making of the Modern World
Making of the Modern World provides digital facsimile images of unique primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1930.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
This HeinOnline collection brings together, for the first time, all essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery.
America's Historical Imprints
Searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and ephemera. Collections: Early American Imprints (EAI), Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; EAI, Series II: Supplement from the Library Comp. of Phil., 1801-1819; EAI, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I; EAI, Series I: Suppl. from the Library Company of Phil., 1670-1800.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Ebooks, pamphlets, essays, broadsides published in the UK during the 18th century.
Chatham House Online Archive - 1920-1979
Publications and archives of Chatham House, the world-leading independent international affairs policy institute. Contains analysis and research, as well as debates and speeches it has hosted.
Civil Rights and Social Justice
This database brings together publications covering civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more Americans. Containing hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on the landmark legislation, CRS and GAO reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, this database allows users to educate themselves on the ways our civil rights have been strengthened and expanded over time.
JSTOR
Scholarly journals and ebooks in the humanities, social sciences, and business. Journal coverage generally ends 3-5 years before the current year.
ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle
ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle is a curated selection of primary sources for teaching and learning about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans. The collections cover 1790 to present.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
The Public Papers of the Presidents is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The series provides an historical reference covering the administrations of Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
Prestatehood Legal Materials
Prestatehood Legal Materials provides brief overviews of state histories from colonization to statehood and identifies a wide range of both materials from each state. Examine the legal issues with Native Americans, inter-state and the Mexican and Canadian borders, and the development of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government.

Statista
Find statistics, consumer survey results, and industry studies. Categorized into 21 market sectors, the platform provides direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets.
Data sources include market research reports as well as trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.
CountryWatch
Reports on political, business, demographic, cultural, and environmental information and statistics on countries around the world. Also includes daily news coverage by country, comparable country data sets and regional maps.
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)
Covering many current social issues, features updated viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, images and other resources.
OECD iLibrary
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) iLibrary is OECD’s Online Library for books, papers and statistics and the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. Indexes 480 complete databases with 4.5 billion+ data points produced since 1998.
PolicyMap
Users can access thousands of U.S. data indicators to perform demographic and socioeconomic analysis, from a neighborhood census block group up to a national level, or create custom regions, for research and studies.

U.S. Data and Statistics
Data published by the government about the U.S., such as maps and population, demographic, and economic data.
eurostat
Key to European Statistics
undata
Data published by the United Nations
Statistical Abstract of the United States 1878-2012

Social Explorer
Social Explorer provides demographic information through thousands of interactive data maps going back to 1790. Set up an account with your Iona email address to create interactive maps, reports and statistics down to the street level.

Gale eBooks
Ebook versions of encyclopedias and reference works covering most subjects, as well as a collection of classic literature and criticisms.
Britannica Academic Edition
Articles from Encyclopædia Britannica; headlines from the NYT and BBC, articles from 700+ magazines and periodicals, World data; maps, plus animations, videos, and audio files; and world atlas.
CountryWatch
Reports on political, business, demographic, cultural, and environmental information and statistics on countries around the world. Also includes daily news coverage by country, comparable country data sets and regional maps.
eHRAF World Cultures
eHRAF World Cultures is an online cross-cultural and ethnographic database that contains descriptive information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The annually-growing eHRAF database is organized by cultures and ethnic groups, and every document is subject-indexed at the paragraph level, facilitating precise retrieval within documents.

CIA World Factbook
Library of Congress Country Studies
World Bank
Click on countries and retrieve background information and up to date reports on all countries.
BBC Country Profiles

International Newsstream
Provides the most recent news content outside of the US and Canada, with archives which stretch back decades featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites.

Google Scholar (Search and Export Citations)

Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com) allows you to search for relevant scholarly information across many disciplines and sources.

If you search Google Scholar on-campus, you will be automatically linked to full-text articles which are in the Library databases. From off-campus, you must link to Iona University Library Databases from Google Scholar.

Instructions for linking to Iona University Library Databases from Google Scholar

Go to Settings (three bars on top left of the page)
Click on Library Links
Type in Iona University

How do Google Scholar Library Links work?

When you search Google Scholar, you'll see Find full-text @ Iona links in the results. Sometimes these links will appear to the right of the result, and other times the links will be hidden at the bottom of the result -- to unhide (or expand), click the double arrows.

You still need to log in (authenticate) with your Iona user id and password after clicking Find full-text @ Iona. Full text is not guaranteed. Iona full-text holdings are constantly being updated, and sometimes Google's inventory of our catalog may not be in sync. If an article isn't available full-text, please request via ILL.

To configure exporting citations from Google Scholar to Refworks

Go to Settings (three bars on top left of the page).
Locate the Bibliography Manager
Select RefWorks from the drop-down menu next to Show links to import citations into.
Click on Save.
When you locate an article that you would like to export to RefWorks, click on Cite and select RefWorks to export.

More about Google Scholar:

Click on the double rights arrows (>>) to see all the access options.

Full view = Takes you directly to the full-text of the article in a library database or publisher web site
Library Search = Searches the Iona Library Catalog for the book titles, this option will not appear for articles
Find Full Text@ Iona = Takes you to full-text citation finders where it will direct you to an ILL form or the full-text
Cached = Refers to old snapshots of articles that Google has indexed
All Versions = Shows different formats (preprint, journal, repository) of the same academic work
Cited by = Articles Referencing the original

Last Updated: Dec 5, 2025 11:28 AM
URL: https://guides.iona.edu/political_science
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Subjects: International Studies, Law, Political Science

Tags: political_science