Political Science

A guide to resources for researching government and political science

General & Multidisciplinary Databases

The following are other databases that will help you get started in your research – especially when looking for articles. Each database searches thousands of journals and provides links to peer-reviewed and scholarly articles. 

Academic Search Premier

  • More than 13,600 indexed and abstracted journals.
  • Full text for over 4,700 journals.
  • Over 12,000 peer-reviewed, indexed, and abstracted journals.
  • More than 4,000 peer-reviewed, full-text journals.
  • Easily limit searches to records with full text, peer-reviewed, etc.

Web of Science

  • 1900 to present.
  • Includes Science, Social Science, and Arts & Humanities Citation Indexes.

Hot Topics & Social Issues Databases

CQ Researcher

  • 1991 to present.
  • Weekly issues providing up-to-date information on controversial subjects – reported by CQ’s (Congressional Quarterly’s) staff of experienced reporters.
  • Browse by date or topic.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context

  • OVIC features viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to websites

Primary Sources Databases

American Memory (Library of Congress) 

  • Provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
  • It is a digital record of American history and creativity.

Digital National Security Archive 

  • From the award-winning, nongovernmental National Security Archive, this resource consists of expertly curated, and meticulously indexed, declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present. Each collection is assembled by foreign policy experts and features chronologies, glossaries, bibliographies, and scholarly overviews to provide unparalleled access to the defining international issues of our time.
  • More information and full list of resources available in this database: https://www.proquest.com/dnsa/productfulldescdetail?accountid=10920

Eighteenth Century Collections Online 

  • Contains a lot of good primary source material from the Eighteenth Century.

Empire Online 

  • Empire Online brings together contemporary academic scholarship in empire studies and original documents relevant to the topics of imperialism and empire.

PALMM (Publication of Archival & Library Museum Materials) 

  • Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM) is a cooperative initiative of the public universities of Florida to provide digital access to important source materials for research and scholarship.

The National Archives (U.S.) 

  • Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.

Secondary Resources Databases (Selected)

America: History & Life 

  • America: History & Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.

Annual Reviews 

  • Founded in 1932, Annual Reviews provides researchers, professors, and scientific professionals with a definitive academic resource in more than 45 scientific disciplines. Annual Reviews saves you time by synthesizing the vast amount of primary research literature and identifying the principal contributions in your field. Editorial committees comprised of the most distinguished scholars in the discipline select all topics for review, and the articles are written by authors who are recognized experts in the field. Annual Reviews publications are among the highest cited publications by impact factor according to the Journal Citation Reports® published by Thomson Reuters.

Cambridge Journals Online 

  • Cambridge University Press currently publishes over 220 peer-reviewed academic journals for the global market.

CIA World Factbook 

  • The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.

CQ Press Electronic Library 

  • CQ Electronic Library, an expanding suite of electronic references, is founded on CQ's authoritative and balanced coverage of public affairs.

CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 

  • CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy.

eHRAF World Cultures 

  • Paragraph level indexing of ethnographies, supporting cross-cultural research via the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM). Organized by region, culture, and ethnic group. Over 350,000 pages of indexed information on all aspects of social and cultural life.

Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbooks 

  • Presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world.

Oxford Journals Online 

  • Search journals published by Oxford University Press.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses 

  • A database that includes over 2 million master's theses & dissertations. Provides coverage of multiple fields of study.

OECD iLibrary 

  • The online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Available through UF Libraries. Books, journals, working papers, and more are available on topics such as the general economy, statistics, and agriculture.

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