Political Science
Guide to Political Science library research
Getting Started
Think about what you are trying to research in Political Science. Are you interested in learning about the Belt and Road Initiative? Do you want to learn about IMF funding in developing countries or different expressions of populism? 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.
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. For example, if you start out researching affects of climate change on trade agreements in Africa, but wind up becoming more interested in writing about negotiations around the Great Green Wall as you read, that can turn into a great opportunity to pursue a topic that interests you more. Alternatively, 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 This link opens in a new window
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Reference books, scholarly monographs, novels, manuals, etc. available in ebook format. - OAPEN (Open Access) This link opens in a new windowOAPEN 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 This link opens in a new windowPortal 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 link opens in a new windowThis 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 This link opens in a new window
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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) This link opens in a new window
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Ebooks in the humanities representing disciplines such as politics, history, philosophy, religion, literature, etc - Very Short Introductions: Politics This link opens in a new window
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Very Short Introductions are ebooks that offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas.
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
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- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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This tool creates a federated (shared) search across all primary resources from one vendor to include: 18th Century Collections Online, 19th Century UK Periodicals, The Making of the Modern World, and Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive. - Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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Ebooks, pamphlets, essays, broadsides published in the UK during the 18th century. - Chatham House Online Archive - 1920-1979 This link opens in a new window
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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 link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new windowProQuest 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 This link opens in a new windowThe 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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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) This link opens in a new window
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Covering many current social issues, features updated viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, images and other resources. - OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 StatisticsData published by the government about the U.S., such as maps and population, demographic, and economic data.
- eurostatKey to European Statistics
- undataData published by the United Nations
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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Ebook versions of encyclopedias and reference works covering most subjects, as well as a collection of classic literature and criticisms. - Britannica Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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.
- World BankClick on countries and retrieve background information and up to date reports on all countries.