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Political science subject guide
Getting started with your research...
Recommended Journal Article Databases for Poli Sci Research
- Political Science Complete - search for articles in International relations, Comparative politics, International politics, International organizations, Security, Foreign policy, Human rights, Political economy, U.S. Politics, Public policy, Elections
- ProQuest Combined Canadian - search for articles in Canadian politics and government, Canadian public policy and public administration, Quebec politics, Canadian federalism and parliament
- JSTOR - search for articles in Classical political theory and philosophy, Hellenistic, Roman, Medieval political philosophy
- HeinOnline Law Journal Library - search for articles in Law journals, Canadian, American and international law, Constitutional law
- Google Scholar - multidisciplinary -> See also: How to set up Google Scholar to find Concordia Resources
Books & Ebooks
- Sofia Discovery tool - find print books and ebooks available at Concordia
- Worldcat: books worldwide
- Canada Commons (DesLibris/Canadian Public Policy Collection) - Canadian scholarly ebooks, ebooks, government documents,policy documents and other grey literature (non-governmental organization publications, community organization publications)
Newspapers
Canadian Newsstream - Canadian English daily newspapers, including the Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, National Post and many regional and local papers.
Eureka.cc - Canadian/Quebec newspapers and magazines in French and English, includes La Presse, Le Devoir, and L'Actualité.
US Newsstream - Major US daily newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall street journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Boston Globe, LA Times, USA Today and many more regional and local newspapers.
International Newsstream - news content from outside the U.S. and Canada, in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Danish, See the Title List.
Factiva - Access to the full-text of international newspapers (Times London, New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian UK, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, etc.) including 500 newswires (Reuters, Associated Press), broadcast transcripts (BBC, NPR, CNN etc), magazines.
Historical Newspapers - Canada, US and international
The Hill Times - weekly newspaper that covers Canadian federal politics.
Information by topic
Governmental, political, legal information
Government Information Subject Guide - start here to locate government publications, reports, commissions, etc.
- Country profiles & reports
- Government Information Databases
- Opinion polls
- Law & Criminal Justice
- Statistics & Data (DLI)
- Guide to Interest Groups/Think Tanks (Queen's University Library)
Websites by topic
- Canadian Politics & Government Information (Library and Archives Canada)
- Canadian Interest Groups & Think Tanks (Queen's University Library)
- Canadian Global Affairs Institute (Canadian Global Affaris Institute)
- Centre for International Policy Studies (University of Ottawa)
- iPolitics (iPolitics)
- Institute for Research on Public Policy - independent, national, bilingual organization researching Canadian policy
- POLTEXT - collection of textual data sources used for policy analysis in Canada (ULaval) English & French
- Political Database of the Americas centralized information about institutions, political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies of the Americas (Georgetown University)
- Council on Foreign Relations Resources in international affairs focusing on 12 policy areas and searchable by region and issue.
- Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) includes global political and demographic indicators related to political stability.
- EuroDocs - primary sources for European history
- Foreign Affairs Online (University of Virginia)
- IDEA: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Reports on: electoral processes, political parties, constitution-building, democracy and gender, and conflict assessment. - Transparency International - reports, statistics, and analysis of global corruption.
- Center for International Development and Conflict Management (University of Maryland)
- Freedom in the World reports - comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties.
- Human Rights Watch
- National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
- World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
Citing your sources
Concordia Citation Guides (APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago)
Government Information Citation Guides (Canadian, American, Legal)
Graduate Library Orientation
Library Services for Graduate Students
Services and Spaces
Services for graduate students include borrowing privileges (up to 100 items), article delivery, help & how-to guides, dissertation support, consultations, and workshops.
Getting Organized
Zotero - manage and organize the bibliographic references you find in library Sophia Discovery tool, databases, and on the web
Research Data Management Guide - how to organize and store your data
Bibliometrics and Research Imapct Guide - tools to measure your research impact
Spectrum - Concordia's Open Access Research Repository, includes theses and dissertations
Check out the GradProSkills Library Workshops
Library Research Resources
- Sofia Discovery tool - find print books and ebooks available at Concordia
- "Browse the shelf" to see neighbouring books to the item that you have selected
- Unfold the "description" for more information on the book itself and to find similar books on topic
- "Check availability" to find out whether Concordia has an e-book version
- "Browse the shelf" to see neighbouring books to the item that you have selected
- Worldcat: search multiple library catalogues, worldwide
- BAnQ - National Library of Quebec (at Berri-UQAM metro) - all residents of Quebec can get a free library card, plus access to a wide array of online sources
- Canada Commons (DesLibris Documents/Canadian Public Policy Collection) - ebooks, government documents and other grey literature (non-governmental organization publications, community organization publications)
Review Journals
Annual Reviews of Political Science - literature reviews on poli sci topics
Annual Reviews of Law and Social Science - literature reviews on legal and social science topics
Databases
Political Science Complete - full-text article database, excellent journal coverage in political science, useful subject thesaurus
International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA) - full-text and citation databases, good international coverage
HeinOnline Law Journal Library - law school journals, peer reviewed content, contains Canadian, American and some international law
ProQuest Combined Canadian - search for articles in Canadian politics and government, Canadian public policy and public administration, Quebec politics, Canadian federalism and parliament
JSTOR - archive of multidisciplinary journals, search for articles in Classical political theory and philosophy, Hellenistic, Roman, Medieval political philosophy
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global - search for theses and dissertations worldwide
Article Finder - a search tool for known-item article searches
Sage Research Methods Online - encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, journal articles and videos dealing with research methods in both theoretical and practical terms. It also includes Methods Map, a visualization tool that tries to map relationships between methods.
The Sage handbook of qualitative data collection (2018) - ebook
Research Methodologies and Handbooks
Use the following keyword searches for lists of print books and ebooks on methodology and research in Political Science, Public Administration, and the social sciences more broadly. Each link will bring you to page of results.
- Specific Political Science Methodologies
"Comparative government -- Research -- Methodology"
"Democratization -- Research -- Methodology"
"International relations -- Methodology"
"International relations -- Research -- Methodology"
"International relations -- Study and teaching"
- Public Administration Methodologies
"Public administration -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"
"Public administration -- Research -- Methodology"
- Political Science Methodologies
"Policy sciences -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"
"Political science -- Methodology"
"Political science -- Methodology -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"
"Political science -- Research"
"Political science -- Research -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"
"Political science -- Research -- Methodology"
"Political science -- Study and teaching"
- Social Science Methodologies / Quantitative / Qualitative
Canadian Newsstream - Canadian English daily newspapers, including the Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, National Post and many regional and local papers.
Eureka.cc - Canadian/Quebec newspapers and magazines in French and English, includes La Presse, Le Devoir, and L'Actualité.
US Newsstream - Major US daily newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall street journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Boston Globe, LA Times, USA Today and many more regional and local newspapers.
International Newsstream - news content from outside the U.S. and Canada, in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Danish, See the Title List.
Historical Newspapers - Canada, US and international
The Hill Times - weekly newspaper that covers Canadian federal politics.
CPI.Q - Canadian magazines and journals
Concordia Library Special Collections - an array of rare books, archival materials, maps, photographs, and other materials
Government Infromation Guide - custom search through government websites and catalogues, find digitized government publication databases
Law & Criminal Justice Guide - online resources for law, legal studies, criminology
Opinion polls - databases polling data and surveys
Statistics & Data (DLI) - tools for locating statistics, agreggate and microdata
Peer review, Open access and Predatory publishing
How do you know if your journal is peer reviewed? - tools to help you determine the journal's status
Open Access Publishing - What is Open Access? What are the different types of Open Access? How do you assess good Open Access publications?
Predatory Publishers
Predatory publishers tend to campaign aggressively for academics to submit articles, charge authors high fees (often hidden at first) but do not offer sufficient quality control or thorough editorial process.
Many of them accept papers without an appropriate editorial board or peer review process, often including works with poor writing and low-quality content.
UBC Library Guide: Publishing a Journal Article & Avoiding Predatory Publishers
Workshops (Winter 2023)
POLI 305 International Political Economy - Zeitz Library Guide and workshop slides
POLI 366 - Politics of Africa - Poteete Library Workshop Course guide and Slides
POLI 345 - Contemporary Political Philosophy - Panagiotarakou Library Workshop Slides
Workshops (Fall 2022)
Parliamentary Research - Legislative Process - Painter - Guide and workshop slides
POLI 322 - Israeli Politics and Government - Nikolenyi - Course guide and workshop slides
POLI 205/B - Introduction to International Relations - Lipson Library Workshop Slides
POLI 203/2 C - Introduction to Comparative Politics - Frimpong Library Workshop Slides
Workshops (Winter 2022)
POLI 204/E - Introduction to Canadian Politics - Ruderman Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
Workshops (Fall 2021)
POLI 203-B - Introduction to Comparative Politics - Nikolenyi Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
POLI 205 - Introduction to International Relations - Lipson Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
POLI 204 - Introduction to Canadian Politics - Ruderman Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
POLI 353 - Principles of Public Policy Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
POLI 815/648 - Feminist Critiques of Public Policy Library Workshop PowerPoint Slides
Need help?
Michelle Lake
Political Science, Government Publications, School of Community and Public Affairs & First Peoples Studies Librarian
Consultations available via email and Zoom, contact me for an appointment.
Contact me for subject-specific research assistance, for library instruction, or to recommend books. But, if your research question can't wait OR for general reference support ...TRY our:
