Political Science: Find Articles
Databases
- Worldwide Political Science AbstractsIndexes articles related to political institutions, international law and politics, public policy, public administration, political theory, and political economics. Indexes sources from 1975 to the present.
- PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service)Covers public affairs, public and social policy, and international relations. Includes national and international journal articles, books, government documents, statistics, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, microfiche, and pertinent web sites.
- CQ Researcher
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Offers reports on key issues in the U.S.Congress from 1923 to the present. Includes a searchable archive by keyword, date, or subject. - CQ LibraryContains full text of CQ Researcher reports, CQ Magazine (formerly CQ Weekly, featuring bills and legislative actions) as well as reference works on politics, commerce, and the U.S. Congress.
- ProQuest CongressionalContains citations and full text to U.S. legislative information from 1970 to the present, with additional coverage of Congressional hearings from 1824 to 1979.
- Nexis Uni
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Includes full text sources for regional, national, and international newspapers as well as business, legal, and medical publications, and also, government documents. - Congressional Hearings Digital CollectionCollects full text, abstracts, and citations for U.S. legislative information, regulations, and news with augmented full text coverage of Congressional hearings for 1824-1979. Updated daily when Congress is in session.
- CQ Press Political Reference SuiteContains full text encyclopedias, directories, handbooks, and guides in political science.
Multi-disciplinary Databases
- Academic Search PremierProvides selected full text, scholarly, and peer reviewed articles in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- Google Scholar
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Google Scholar searches the academic, scholarly Web for peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles. Searching Google Scholar from the Portland State University Library will identify full text articles available from PSU Library resources as well as open access articles from other universities and colleges. - JSTORContains full text articles from major research journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage of most journals starts from the beginning of a journal's publication and typically excludes the most recent three to five years.
- Dissertations and Masters Theses Global (ProQuest)Maintains citations, abstracts, and full text of dissertations from 1997 to the present along with citations and abstracts for selected masters theses from 1962 to the present. Includes subject, title, and author indexing to U.S. dissertations from 1861 to the present.
- Web of ScienceMaintains citation searching for high impact research journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences and includes emerging sources citation indexing from 2005.
Moving from a Research Question to a Search Strategy in 4 Steps
Moving from a research question to an effective search strategy involves breaking down the question into its Core Concepts, brainstorming Keywords, and then constructing an effective Search Strategy. You can do this in 4 steps.
1. Articulate your research question
Is union representation good for public employees in Oregon?
2. Break down your research question into its core concepts.
- Union Representation
- Public Employees
- Oregon
3. Now list alternative ways of describing these concepts.
Your list can include broader, narrower, and related concepts.
| Union Representation: | Collective Bargaining | labor union | labor dispute | SEIU |
| Public Employees: | workers | state worker | employee | staff |
| Oregon: | Pacific Northwest | Washington | United States | Portland |
4. Create multiple search strategies by combining words from your concept brainstorm list.
- Union AND employee AND portland
- (Labor Union OR collective bargaining) AND state work* AND oregon
- Etc.
Tips
- Use truncation (an * at the root of a word to find different word forms. For example, librar* will find libraries, librarian, librarians, etc.
- Use parentheses and the OR operator to "nest" your search--different terms/phrases that represent the same concept.
- Use quotation marks for phrase searching.
- Use Boolean operators to connect search terms:
- OR -- finds results with either or both terms -- it is used to broaden your search.
- AND -- finds results with both terms -- it is used to narrow your search.
Acknowledgement: The content in this box was based off of Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh's work at Georgia State University Library.
Journal Title Search
Find it @ PSU
If the article citation does not include links to the full text, click on the Find it @ PSU button to check availability. Find it @ PSU is the link to the full text (online or print), that leads to the full text will appear under View Online. If it is not available, there will be an option to request the article from Interlibrary Loan & Article Delivery.
