Selected Political Science Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
| 21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook | REF JA 66 A21 2011 |
| The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science | REF JA 61 B43 1999 |
| Culture Wars in America | REF HM 1121 C85 2014A |
| Dictionary of Modern Politics | REF JA 61 R63 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of American Political History | REF E 183 E48 2001 |
| Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections | REF JK 2261 S218 2006 |
| Encyclopedia of the American Left | REF HX 86 E58 1998 |
| Encyclopedia of Political Communication | REF JA 85 E64 2008 |
| The Encyclopedia of Political Science | REF JA 61 E513 2011 |
|
*Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns Slogans, Issues, and Platforms |
REF E 176.1 R6 2004
|
| Encyclopedia of Public Administration & Public Policy | REF JK 9 E526 2004 |
| Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics | Available online through "Search Everything" |
| Encyclopedia of the U.S. Presidency | REF JK 517 E53 2013 |
| Encyclopedia of the United States Congress | REF JK 1021 D48 2007 |
| Encyclopedia of Water Politics and Policy in the United States | REF HD 1694 A5 E265 2011 |
|
Governing America: Major Decisions of Federal, State, and Local Governments from 1789 to the Present |
REF JK 468 P64 Q55 2010 |
| Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy | REF E 183.7 C7 2012 |
| Guide to Political Campaigns in America | REF JK 2265 G84 2005G |
| International Encyclopedia of Political Science | REF JA 61 I58 2011 |
| The Palgrave Dictionary of Political Thought | REF JA 61 S37 2007 |
| The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History | REF E 183 P85 2010 |
| Social Issues in America | REF HN 57 S624 2006 |
| Women in American Politics: History and Milestones | REF HQ 1236.5 U6 W43 2012 |
|
*Located in the reference collection in the subbasement. |
Selected Electronic Reference Sources
- CQ Guide to U.S. Elections (7th edition) This link opens in a new windowThe CQ Press Guide to U.S. Elections, Seventh Edition is a comprehensive, two-volume reference providing information on the U.S. electoral process, in-depth analysis on specific political eras and issues, and everything in between. Thoroughly revised and infused with new data, analysis, and discussion of issues relating to elections through 2015, the Guide will include chapters on: analysis of the campaigns for presidency, from the primaries through the general election; data on the candidates, winners/losers, and election returns; details on congressional and gubernatorial contests from the primaries through the general elections supplemented with vast historical data; coverage of campaign finance, as well as reapportionment and redistricting.
- CQ Congress and the Nation This link opens in a new windowSearch for titles in Sage Knowledge. Comprehensive coverage of Congressional action from 1945 to 2008. Includes tables, charts, and graphs.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) This link opens in a new windowExplore this database of encyclopedias and reference sources within the Gale eBooks platform. For multidisciplinary research. A collection of full text electronic reference books covering many subject areas. Can be searched by keyword, source, subject, image caption, full text, and audience. Individual books can be combined for cross-title searching.
- Sage Knowledge This link opens in a new windowSage Knowledge is the premier social sciences platform for Sage and CQ Press books, reference and video content.
Finding Books
EDS searches across the library's catalog and many of its databases in a single search. This is the default search box (Search Everything) on the library home page. Because the results are so broad, learn to refine your results by using the toggle boxes on the left of the results screen. To narrow a search to book only, go to Location and check the appropriate boxes.
Classic Catalog
Search for books in the Milne Library Catalog.
Finding Scholarly Articles
Political Science Resources
- Political Science CompleteProvides full text for more than 520 journals, and indexing and abstracts for over 2,900 titles. Also features over 340 full-text reference books and monographs, and over 36,000 full-text conference papers.
General Databases with Political Science Resources
- Academic OneFile This link opens in a new windowProvides over 54,000,000 articles, most full-text, from about 13,000 scholarly journals across most academic subject areas. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text for about 8,500 periodicals including over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals across most areas of academic study as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 magazines and journals. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new windowAbout 10,000 journals available full-text from open access publishers. Over one million articles are included.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text of over 1400 core scholarly journals and Books across most subject areas.
Can be used for course content: Titles from many university presses and other academic publishers - Military & Government CollectionCurrent news pertaining to all branches. Provides full-text for about 300 journals and other periodicals.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowPeriodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content in 37 key subject areas.
- Project MuseFull text of over 100 scholarly journals and books from university presses in fields including literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, political science, gender studies, and economics.
Can be used for course content: Includes books from many university presses and scholarly journals - ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text access to journals in the fields of science, psychology, medicine, and technology.
- Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)This full-text resource provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language social science journals. Social Sciences Full Text includes full-text articles from hundreds of journals, covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences. Content Includes: Full-text articles from 360 journals Full-text content dating as far back as 1972 High-quality indexing for more than 750 periodicals, over 510 of which are peer-reviewed.
Other Resources
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (scholar's edition)Contains books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies documenting women's reform activities and social movements from 1600-2000.
Can be used for course content: Excellent primary source collections.
Finding a Copy of a Periodical Article
Locating the full text of the article in electronic form
If there is no PDF or HTML full text with the citation for an article in a database, click on Full Text Finder. If the full text of the articles is available in another database, there will usually be a link to that database where the article can be found by linking to the appropriate volume and issue number, or by searching for the article by its specific title. In some databases, the article will appear without additional searching.
If the article is not available, return to the home page of the library and click on Journals. Enter the journal title in the search box, and click on the search icon. Click on Full Text Access to see if an online or print copy of the article is available. Print Journals in Milne Library links to the Classic Catalog and provides information on items that are available in Milne Library. On the record for the journal title, click Is it here? The record will list the years and volumes of the journal held in Milne Library. The record will also indicate whether the issue is in print or microfilm.
Print periods are located on compact shelving, and microfilm is available in metal cabinets in the Microfilm Room, both of which are in the Periodicals Room, (SB floor), two floors beneath the main floor of the library.
Requesting an article on Interlibrary Loan
If you find an article from a periodical that is not available at Milne Library, you can request the article through the link Request item on Interlibrary Loan on the record for the article needed or through the link on the bottom of the homepage of the library website. See a librarian for help.
Finding an Article in a Particular Periodical Title
- Use the Journals tab on the top of the library home page.
- Enter the title of the journal or magazine, for example, American journal of political science, in the search box and click on Exact Match.
- Look for the journal title in the results list.
- Click on an appropriate database.
- Link to the correct issue of the periodical (note the year, issue and volume number of the article).
- If an electronic text is available, click on the link provided. If the library subscribes to the periodical in print or microfilm, click on the specific library holdings and locate the title in the library.
Finding Book Reviews
Book Review Digest Current
Current book reviews and citations to reviews collected from a variety of published sources.
Book Review Digest Retro 1903-1982
Excerpts from and citations to book reviews.
Choice Reviews Online
Source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those is higher education.
The "Search Everything" feature of the Milne Library web site is also a good resource for locating book reviews.
Finding Quality Web Pages
To insure that you find the best and most authoritative information on the web, follow these suggestions:
1. Limit searches to .gov and .edu:
To do this add site: gov or site: edu to any web search.
2. Use only key words and place phrases inside " ":
"social classes"
television and "class structure"
3. Use the advanced search feature of search engines, such as Google Advanced Search where you can limit the domain to .edu or .gov, limit key words to appear to the title of the page and use phrases.
How to evaluate information located on the web
Virginia Tech University Libraries: Evaluating webpages for research
http://www.lib.vt.edu/instruct/evaluate/
University of North Carolina University Library's Evaluating Websites: Checklist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMKuIlvj0WQ
Revised September 21, 2016