LibGuides: POLS 3505: Making Democracy Work: Getting Started

About this guide

Welcome! This page highlights key resources for conducting effective research for Prof. Sheri Berman's course, Making Democracy Work.

This guide highlights key resources for conducting effective information research in political science, including the following:

Reference sources to find background information on your topic
Catalogs to search for books in print and online
Databases for locating scholarly journal articles, reviews, and policy reports
Tips for using resources from recommended policy institutes and think tanks
Databases and websites for news sources
Reliable sources of data and statistics
U.S. government information
Resources for citing your sources and writing in political science
Opportunities for undergraduate student publishing
Tips to to help keep textbook costs down

If you need assistance identifying additional resources, search terms or strategies, please schedule a research consultation.

If you need assistance organizing, analyzing, or visualizing data sets, please visit the Empirical Reasoning Center.

Image: Celebrations in Tahrir Square after Omar Suleiman's statement concerning Hosni Mubarak's resignation, by Jonathan Rashad, via Wikimedia Commons

Reference sources

Consult scholarly reference sources to get an overview of a topic, an introduction to a theory, definitions to discipline-specific terms, and more.

Annual Review of Political Science
This is great for getting comprehensive summaries of research on specific topics in the field. Look at the bibliographies to lead you to the original works cited.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics by Iain McLean (Editor); Alistair McMillan (Editor)
ISBN: 9780199207800
Publication Date: 2009-03-19
The Encyclopedia of Political Science by George Thomas Kurian (Editor); James E. Alt (Editor); Simone Chambers (Editor); Paula D. McClain (Editor); Geoffrey Garrett (Editor); Margaret Levi (Editor)
ISBN: 9781933116440
Publication Date: 2010-10-12
Encyclopedia of Political Theory by Mark Bevir (Editor)
ISBN: 9781412958653
Publication Date: 2010-03-18
International Encyclopedia of Political Science by Bertrand Badie (Editor); Dirk Berg-Schlosser (Editor); Leonardo Morlino (Editor)
ISBN: 9781412959636
Publication Date: 2011-09-07

Oxford Bibliographies Online
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements by David A. Snow (Editor); Donatella della Porta (Editor); Bert Klandermans (Editor); Doug McAdam (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405197731
Publication Date: 2013-02-25