General Research linksPrint Research in Political ScienceResearch Guide
How to do research on the web:
Always remember: The fact that something is published on the web is no guarantee of its accuracy or its objectivity.
And keep in mind: Aside from government documents, most "quality" research material is not yet available on the web at this point. Read the section titled "Print Research in Political Science" to find out how to do traditional print-based research.
Must Read:
Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources, by Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library
Evaluating Internet Sources, University of Calgary LibraryAlso very useful:
Research on the Web, Part I: Tools and Tips, University of Illinois at Chicago Library
Research on the Web, Part II, Critical Thinking, University of Illinois at Chicago Library
Good Source of Search Engines and their differences, University of Illinois at Chicago Library
Print Research in Political Science:
In most cases, looking up print-based sources is essential to your research. Much of the available print information (books, periodicals, documents) is indexed in print indexes (reference section of the library) and electronic indexes (available through CUNY+). Used correctly, these indexes provide citation information for actually existing print articles and books on the topic of your research.
Note that electronic indexes such as InfoTrac or DPER do not usually give you the full text of articles; they give you the citations to the articles. Armed with a citation list provided by these powerful electronic tools, you still have to follow in the footsteps of previous generations of students and scholars: find out if the library has the periodical, wander around the library stacks, track down articles in your citation list, flip through them to see if they are useful, find the article next to it that really is useful, take notes on it, and photocopy it, if necessary. (For detailed instructions on using CUNY+ to see if BC has a particular periodical, click here.)
Information on what a literature review is, and how to go about it, is available on this site at the University of Toronto
Below, read about:
Searching for books and journal citations electronically
Indexes in Print
Bibliographies and Research Guides
CD ROM Databases
Other links with research advice
Searching for books and journal citations electronically:
Use CUNY+ to search for books and journal titles in your area of research with the following services:
In DPAC, you can search by author, title, subject, or keyword. For information on how these searches work, type exp k (for explain keyword), exp s (for explain subject). For detailed instructions on using CUNY+ to find periodicals, click here. A little advice: When searching for books on a particular topic, remember the time-honored mantra of librarians -- the importance of browsing. In the stacks, don't just pull out the book you were looking for and leave; take a few minutes to see what else is in the same section. Chances are, that's when you'll find the perfect book for your topic.
DPER, a periodicals index, contains citations from four periodical indexes, covering over 800 journals in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, as well as general periodicals. Like DPAC, you can search for citations by author, title, subject, or keyword.
BIOG, the Biography Index, contains citations to biographical material in more than 3000 periodicals and 1900 current books (annually). Biographical subjects indexed range from antiquity to the present and represent all fields and nationalities. Like DPAC and DPER, you can search for citations by author, title, subject, or keyword.
CURJ: a multidisciplinary current awareness service of more than 7000 journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities.
CURA: contains article citations from the table of contents of over 7000 journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
InfoTrac, available from CUNY workstations only, gives citations to articles, and reviews. Be sure to choose the "PowerTrac" search option so you can search by title, subject, journal, author, date, etc.
Indexes in Print
Provides author and subject indexes to leading scholarly journals in social sciences fields often of interest to political scientists, including political science, public administration, economics, law, sociology, and anthropology. Includes a separate listing of references to book reviews.PAIS International, 1915 - (Reference, Z7163.P9)
The Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) provides a subject index to English language periodicals, books, government publications, and pamphlets. Covers economics, political science, government, law, international relations, sociology, demography, business, finance, social work, and education. Includes books, pamphlets, government publications, and reports from public and private agencies as well as a wide range of periodicals.Bibliographies and Research Guides:
Sources of Information in the Social Sciences, Ref. Z7161.S666 1987
CD-ROM Databases:
More information coming soon.
Other links with research advice:
University of Pennsylvania List of Political Science Resources
List of Political Science
Internet Resources from the BC LibraryNorthern Light: Commercial
service that offers full-text of articles in their "special collection" for
$1.00, usually; and a very good and free WWW search engine: Select
"Power Search" and limit your search by checking off the appropriate boxes.
Full Text Electronic Libraries
Carrie, a full text electronic library
Project Bartleby
Online Medieval and Classical Library
Electronic Text Center from the University of Virginia
The English Server, social science and humanities texts and resources
U.S. Government
Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
White House
U.S. Senate
FedWorld Information Services: Guide to Government databases
Federal Government Agencies
Federal Web Locator search engine
Federal Information Exchange
Fedstats collects and organizes statistics from 70 agencies
National Archives and Records Administration
Census Bureau home page,
1990 Census tables
Ferret, recent population and income data
Gateway to federal databases: excellent resource, includes
Congressional Record
Congressional Bills
History of Bills
Federal Register
United States Code
Economic Indicators
Congressional Reports
State Research
Statesearch, state-level information on a variety of topics
National Conference of State Legislatures
Legal Research
Legal Resources on the Web, by Jane Cramer
Decisions of the Supreme Court, Cornell's site
Oyez, Oyez: Text of decisions and recordings, where available, (in Real Audio) of arguments before the Supreme Court
Findlaw:: an excellent directory and legal search engine
The Federal Court Locator: "The Home Page for the Federal Courts on the Internet"
Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet: Good start for federal legal and legislative research
Legal Information Institute at Cornell: good overview site for legal research
University Law Review Project
Law Journal Extra!
National Law Journal
New York Law Journal
Laws Online
National Conference of State Legislatures
General Political Science Research:
UC San Diego's links to "Data on the Net"
Research Pointers Page: excellent links to introductions on graduate level social research
WebGEMS: Politics
List of Political Science Internet Resources from the BC Library
Comprehensive List of Links for Gay and Lesbian Politics
WWW Political Science Resources from the University of Colorado
Michigan's Index of Political Theory Links
Indiana University's Index of Statecraft
Humanities and Social Sciences Internet Resources from NCSU
List of Political Science Resources on the Web
The PBS Democracy Project: Good links
American Political Science Association
American Sociological Association
Policy Analysis
Think tanks.
Think tanks produce research which is meant to further a particular political world view. Be sure to keep this in mind. Generally, they are best cited as evidence of ideological arguments about policy, not as authoritative sources of fact--look up their sources to judge for yourself if the data they are presenting is likely to be objective. Because think tanks are more likely to present their studies online, they can be a good start to your research. Plumb the bibliographies in these reports.
Policy Com's list of think tanks: Excellent list
Brookings Institution (center-right)
The Cato Institute (right)
Center for Law and Social Policy: Much up-to-date information on welfare, child support, family policies. The online articles have footnotes, which you can see by clicking on the underlined footnote number.
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy (liberal-left)Other policy sources
Policy Com: The Policy New and Information Service: go there for "issues library" and its excellent links to think tanks, advocacy groups, associations, foundations, etc.
Yahoo's Public Policy Page
Electronic Policy Network: policy links, generally liberal, to different policy areas: health, education, welfare, economics and politicsParticular Policy Areas:
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Policy
Comprehensive List of Links for Gay and Lesbian Politics
NYAGRA Policy Page
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Capital Gains and Losses '97, searchable databaseCriminal Justice
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Criminal justice links
Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts, from the Department of Justice
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics OnlineWelfare reform
Welfare Information Network
HandsNet Welfare Reform Watch
Electronic Policy Network IdeaCentral
Center for Law and Social Policy
National Association of Counties"
American Public Welfare Association
National Governors Association
US Department of Health and Human Services
"Assessing the New Federalism" information at the Urban Institute's site
Political Theory
Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought
Philosophy Research Base: This web site is a para/site research tool for the general study of (mostly) western philosophy, including sections on Existentialism, Classic American philosophy, British philosophy, Environmental philosophy, Non-western philosophy, Feminist Theory, Ecofeminism, Queer Theory, etc.
Theory & Event - An online journal. Chronicles creative political thought in the humanities and the social sciences. Available only from Brooklyn College computers.
Cultural Logic: an electronic journal of marxist theory and practice. open to all.
LGBT and Gender Theory and Politics
A people with a history: An online guide to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender History, by Paul Halsall
Comprehensive List of Links for Gay and Lesbian Politics, by Steve Sanders, Indiana University
Indexes to Gay/Lesbian Periodical Articles, Colorado State University
Library Subject Headings to use in lgbtq researchBeginning Library Research on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Studies, Stanford University
Postcolonial Theory
Political Discourse: Theories of Colonialism and Postcolonialism, Brown University
Cultural Studies
Media / cultural studies / gender / sexuality / identity, Leeds University. Also covers o on Butler, Foucault, Gramsci, gender and sexuality studiesCultural Studies Links from the Philosophy Research Base.
Sarah Zupko's Cultural Studies Center: Journals/Archives; Articles/Papers; Theorists
and Critics; Calls for Papers/Conferences; Book Reviews; Academic Programs; Bibliographies/Reading Lists; Publishers; Newsgroups/Listservs; General Links.
Metacrawler: Excellent search engine: multiple engines combined
Profusion smart search engine, filters the results
Webcrawler: searches the contents of web pages, not just their headings
Megellan: an evaluative engine
Infoseek: one of the most powerful search engines
Findlaw:: a legal search engine
Excite: concept searching
Lycos: full text searching
Yahoo: Subject divisions are useful; general searches are poor
search.com has the Infoseek engine as well as more obscure topic-oriented choices
Altavista: a single engine
Northern Light: journal/newspaper article collection; articles are not free (after the first five.)
Writing Resources
P. Currah's Writing Guide
Brooklyn College Policy on Academic Integrity
Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Strunk, William. 1918. The Elements of Style.
Jack Lynch's Grammar and Style Notes: 80 kb of notes on English usageCitation Style Guides:
MLA Style
:
P. Currah's short MLA style guide
Using MLA Style, from Purdue, includes information on citing electronic sources
Handling quotes in your text, MLA style, excellent advice, from Purdue
Modern Languages Association Style Guide, from Ohio StateAPA Style:
P. Currah's short APA style guide
Using APA Style, from Purdue University
Handling quotes in your text, APA style, excellent advice, from Purdue
American Psychological Association Style Guide from Ohio StateChicago Style:
Chicago Style, from the University of Wisconsin
Citing electronic sources, Chicago Style
Reference Materials
Research It
dictionary, quotes, translators, Onelook dictionaries, specialized and general
Roget's Internet Thesaurus
Information Please Almanac
Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia
U.S. Political Parties
Democratic National Committee
Senate Democratic Leadership Committee
House Democratic Leadership
Green Party USA
Labor Party
Libertarian Party
New Party
Reform Party
Republican National Committee
Senate Republican Policy Committee
Democratic Socialists of America
Newspapers and Magazines, and Journals:
Yahoo's extensive list of politically-oriented magazines and journals
The Advocate: Lesbian and Gay news magazine, centrist
The American Prospect: liberal
The Atlantic Monthly: liberal fear mag, scoops on the latest crisis
Brooklyn Metro Times: local, left zine
Dissent: left/liberal journal of culture and politics
Feed Magazine: Interactive web-based magazine
The Nation: left, limited articles from current issue
The National Review: conservative weekly mag
The New Republic: liberal, archived
The New York Times: Current stories only, you must register (for free)
Roll Call: The Capitol Hill newspaper
Salon Magazine: Cutting-edged internet magazine
The Washington Post: current stories only
Z Magazine: left
If you find any out of date links, please let me know: pcurrah@brooklyn.cuny.edu
[Political Science Page] [P. Currah Home Page] [Writing Guide] [Core 3]
© by Paisley Currah, 1997, 1998
Department of Political Science
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11210
718-951-4148
pcurrah@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Last Revised -- 06/02/99
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