MaxGuides: Political Science: Getting Started

Finding Books

Political Science materials can be located by browsing the following call numbers:

JA - Political science (general)

JC - Political theory

JF-JQ - Political institutions and public administration (organized by region)

JS - Local government

JV - Immigration, international migration

JZ - International relations

K-KZ Law

... or by searching the library catalog for the following subjects:

Government

Political sociology

Politicians biography

Public administration

Republicanism

State government

World politics

Selected Print Reference Books

Nations of the world 2018 : a political, economic & business handbook by World of Information (Editor)
Call Number: HF1010 .N37 2018 [Reference]
The concise Oxford dictionary of politics and international relations by Garrett W. Brown; Iain McLean; Alistair McMillan
Call Number: JA61 .C665 2018 [Reference]
Encyclopedia of stateless nations : ethnic and national groups around the world by James B. Minahan
Call Number: D860 .M56 2016 [Reference]
Encyclopedia of Global Studies by Helmut K. Anheier (Editor); Mark Juergensmeyer (Editor)
Call Number: JZ1318 .E626 2012
ISBN: 9781412964296
The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication by Gianpietro Mazzoleni (Editor)
Call Number: Ref JA85 .I575 2016

3 volumes
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought by Gerhard Bowering (Editor)
Call Number: Ref JC49 .P75 2013
Historical Dictionary of Human Rights by Jacques Fomerand
Call Number: Ref JC571 .F59 2014
Historical Dictionary of Intelligence Failures by Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey
Call Number: Ref JF1525.I6 T735 2015
Vital Statistics on American Politics 2015-2016 by Harold W. Stanley; Richard G. Niemi
Call Number: Ref JK275 .S74 2015
The Central Intelligence Agency: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies by Jan Goldman (Editor)
Call Number: Ref JK468.I6 C457 2016

2 volumes
A Constitutional History of the U. S. Supreme Court by Richard J. Regan
Call Number: Ref KF8742 .R46 2015

Finding Articles

There are several ways to search for articles on your research topic:

Google Scholar

If the library does not subscribe to the article or journal you need, you can still obtain it by filling out a request through Interlibrary Loan:

Interlibrary Loan

Selected Journals

American Journal of Political Science
General review open to all areas of the discipline of political science.
American Political Science Review
Articles for a diverse audience of scholars and practitioners which illuminate a significant research problem or answer an important research question of general interest in political science.
Annual Review of Political Science
Primary research to identify the principal contributions in the field of political science.
Harvard Law Review
Journal of legal scholarship, publishes articles by professors, judges, and practitioners and solicits reviews of important recent books from recognized experts.
Law and Contemporary Problems
Special issues dealing with legal, economical, administrative and sociological aspects of law and contemporary problems; consumption taxes, religion and the state, patent system, crime and correction, and more.
New Perspectives Quarterly
Cutting-edge debate on current affairs.
Political Science Quarterly
Widely read and accessible scholarly journal on government, politics, and public policy, examining both domestic and international issues.
The Review of Politics
Primarily philosophical and historical studies of politics, especially those concentrating on political theory and American political thought.
Vital Speeches of the Day
Monthly magazine that presents speeches and addresses in full.
Washington Monthly
Political journal providing an inside look at how the government works in Washington.

Finding E-Reference Books

Maxwell Library provides access to thousands of e-books, which can be located in a general MaxSearch as well as through specific databases, such as the following:

Credo Reference
Full-text content from more than 260 reference titles with nearly 3 million entries covering every major subject.
eBook Collection (EBSCO)
Searchable full text for several thousand e-books on a variety of subjects.

Selected Databases

Academic Search Premier
Full text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
Britannica Academic
Electronic version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Current Biography Illustrated
More than 30,000 biographies and obituaries with photographs, covering more than 20,000 individuals. Searchable collection of more than 35,000 images.
DOAB - Directory of Open Access Books
Directory of nearly 9,000 free, open access, peer-reviewed academic books and chapters from 224 publishers.
Environmental Studies and Policy
Includes nearly 200 journals providing perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policy makers, as well as corporate interests.
Global Issues in Context
Offers international viewpoints on global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Each of these gateway pages includes an overview, unique "perspectives" articles written by local experts, reference, periodical, primary source and statistical information.
ICPSR - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
InfoTrac Newsstand
Current and archival news content, containing approximately 185,000,000 articles.
Nexis Uni (formerly: LexisNexis Academic)
* Nexis Uni will replace LexisNexis Academic on January 1, 2019.*

Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
Military & Government Collection
Periodicals, academic journals, and other content offering information pertaining to all branches of the military and government, including cover-to-cover full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals and indexing and abstracts for nearly 400 titles.
Military and Intelligence Database Collection
Periodicals and basic reference materials that are updated annually: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia and The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Includes over 500 titles and more than 7 million articles (80% full-text).
Political Science Complete
This database contains full text for over 400 journals, and cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 800 journals with a worldwide focus. The database also features more than 180 full-text reference books and monographs, and over 27,000 full-text conference papers.
A to Z Maps Online
The world's largest subscription-based database of proprietary, royalty-free world, continent, country, and state maps. Included in the 4,000+ maps are: political maps, physical maps, outline maps, population maps, precipitation maps, climate maps, and other thematic maps. New maps are added to the collection every month.
World History in Context
Information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in world history over 5,000 years from antiquity to the present and geographically around the world from reference books, journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, and audio files.

Political Science: Getting Started