pol300h

Introduction to Political Analysis: A Library Research Guide

Preparing a Political Science Research Review

Avoid uncritical use of Internet resourcse. Anybody can and will post something on the Internet. Only use online resources provided through the Purdue Libraries website or recommended by Purdue Librarians or your professors. Consult the following guidelines for evaluating Internet resources.

Selecting a Research Topic
*Many interesting topics are to large or demanding to cover in a semester or summer session. Be realistic about project scope and your ability to process and analyze information and data.
*Becoming familiar with existing studies helps in choosing a smaller topic or formulating a narrow question affecting the big picture.

Why Conduct a Literature Review?
Knowledge progresses logically from previous research. New ideas and discovery tend to come from observing and thinking about earlier work. Don't dismiss something because it's "old." Practical uses of a literature review include:

*Avoid duplicating others research and the embarrassment of not doing as good a
job.
*Find overlooked facets of a subject whose gaps you can fill in. This can narrow the topic.
*Improve previous research by using better data, methods, and/or a better explanation.
*Avoid naive approaches, questionable assumptions, fuzzy terminology use, and failing to make crucial distinctions. Don't assume that present problem solving approaches or viewpoints are more valid than historical problem solving approaches or viewpoints.
*Sharpen a small topic to a clear precise question.
*If significant research has been done on a topic, work on developing a general explanation. Discover and compare competing explanations.
*Identify other possible causes or correlates of the dependent variable in order to measure them in data collection.

Literature Review Benefits; Getting conceptual concepts and terms, empirical data sources and measurement, and competing theoretical hypotheses.

Conducting a Literature Review

Factors involved include: Purpose of the review (consider time limits), Developmental stage of existing research, available resources.

Focus on the accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage of these resources. Refer to the previous page's web evaluation guide and only used websites linked to thru Purdue Libraries databases or online catalogs or recommended by Purdue Librarians or your professors. Library staff can show you how to access and utilize scholarly, books, journal articles, and websites for your research.

Tools for Finding Journal Articles and/or Web Documents

Focus on individual databases like these. Don't waste your time using Google or megasearch databases producing a lot of irrelevant information!

ComAbstracts-Indexes articles from communications journals.
ComIndex-Covers communications journals not covered in ComAbstracts. Unwieldy searching.
JSTOR-Collection of individual humanities and social science journals DO NOT veiw as a one-stop access point for your research!
LexisNexis Academic-Good source for newspaper articles and US. law.
PAIS International-Covers scholarly research in political science, public policy, and some government documents.
Ipoll Databank @ Roper Center for Public Opinion Research-Public opinion data.
Omnifile Full Text Mega-Social Sciences Abstracts-Interdisciplinary access to social science journal articles.
Sociological Abstracts-Sociological journal articles.
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)-Database of social sciences scholarly literature citations.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts-Political science journals.
Women's Studies International-Interdisciplinary coverage in this field.

Brief comparison of JSTOR, PAIS International, SSCI, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.

JSTOR-Well organized journal archive with links to full text articles. Advantages include having scholarly articles in mainstream journals. Disadvantages include a moving wall preventing access to articles newer than five years old. Use the Libraries catalog or e-journals database to find more recent articles. Doesn't link to websites.

PAIS International-Provides some full-text links to web documents. Searchable in many ways. Advantages include being able to combine searches and covering a large number of journals. Disadvantages include possibly needing to look for articles in the Libraries catalog or ejournals database.

SSCI-Provides no full text articles. Tells who used whose publications for their research. Advantages include speeding up tracing of the root system used in endnotes and bibliographies. Disadvantages include the possible need to look up all journals in a field and the database not covering all journals.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts-Provides some full text web documents and articles and databases with multisearch options to journal articles and vetted websites. Advantages include permitting combined searches by narrowing topics and covering a large number of journals. Disadvantages include the potential need to look up journals in the Libraries online catalog and ejournals database.

Internet Resource Guides
HSSE Library Subject Links-Provides subject links to various resources including political science and research centers.
Purdue Political Science Department
Purdue Libraries Government Documents Department-Provides access to government agency resources from U.S. Government agencies, state government and Indiana local governments, foreign and international government organizations, statistical resources, and research guides.

Major Publishers
Congressional Information Service (CIS)
Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Pres, especially CQ Public Affairs Collection, CQ Weekly Report, and Congressional Quarterly Almanac.

Worldcat-Closest equivalent to a global online library catalog. Covers most major U.S. and Canadian libraries and many international libraries. Features libraries holdings information for books, journals, dissertations, and audiovisual resources. Provides links to a growing number of cataloged Internet resources.

Associations Unlimited Provides information about professional associations which are often producers of grey or fugitive scholarly literature which may not be indexed by traditional databases or acquired systematically by libraries. Helpful for think tank produced literature.

Contemporary Authors Provides biographical information about nonfiction and fiction authors and has a politics/government category.

Bibliographies and Selected Reference Works
Guide to Reference Books. Robert Balay, ed. HSSE REF Desk 016 M88g 1996
International Bibliography of Political Science HSSE Periodicals 016.320 In8
International Bibliography of Sociology HSSE REF 016.305 In8
Social Compass HSSE Periodicals 305 So108
Current Sociology HSSE Periodicals 305 C94
Chad M. Kahl. International Relations, International Security, and Comparative Politics: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources. HSSE 016.3203 K12li 2008
Jan Wepsiec. Sociology: An International Bibliography of Serial Publications HSSE 016.30105 W49s
Henry E. York. Political Science: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources. HIKS REPO 016.32 Yo82p 1990

Selected Books
Almanac of American Politics HSSE REF Desk 328.73005 AL62
America Votes HSSE REF 324.73 AM3 Excellent resource for presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and guvernatorial election results.
Bert Chapman. Researching National Security and Intelligence Policy. HSSE REF 025.06355033583 C366r 2004
CQ's State Fact Finder. HSSE REF and UGRL 317.305 V365
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). (University of Michigan compilation of data sets and studies)
International Encylopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. HSSE REF 300.3 In75 2001
Gary King and Lynn Ragsdale. The Elusive Executive: Discovering Statistical Patterns in the Presidency. HSSE 353.081 K582e
CQ's Politics in America HSSE REF DEsk 328.73073025 C7605
Statistical Abstract of the United States HSSE REF Desk and Periodicals 317.3 St27

Periodicals-Most will be in HSSE. Check the Libraries catalog FIRST for paper holdings and electronic access. Check the Librareis ejournals link only if the catalog does not hold these resources. Some periodicals will be PAPER ONLY.

American Journal of Political Science (AJPS)
American Political Science Review (APSR)
American Politics Research (APR). Formerly American Politics Quarterly.
Congressional Information Service (CIS) Index HSSE REF 328.73005 C76 (Indexes congressional publications including committee hearings.)
Congressional Record Online from 1995 on and also online through the Digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set
CQ Weekly-Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
Congressional Quarterly Almanac
Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and its predecessorWeekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
International Security
Journal of Politics (JOP)
National Journal
Political Behavior (PB)
Political Research Quarterly (PRG)
United States Census of Population
Vital Statistics on Congress


Professor Bert Chapman
Government Information and Political Science Librarian
chapmanb@purdue.edu
(5/09 rev.)