Research Guides: Political Science 312, American Presidency, Dr. Rocca: Home

Social Sciences Librarian

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Zimmerman Library, 2nd Floor, Herzstein Latin American Reading Room, #296
Liz Cooper's Website

Subjects: Anthropology & Archaeology, Global and National Security Policy, International Studies, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health, Sociology, Speech & Hearing

Getting Ideas

There are many ways to get ideas for a research topic and to learn a bit more about the context/background of a topic you find interesting.

One way is to look at your TEXTBOOK -- is there a chapter you find interesting? If so, look at the citations in that chapter and track those down to learn more.

Or browse and search through some news, blogs and websites that have a politics/policy focus. Some good ones, with a more political-sciencey bent are listed below OR check out this website that recommends political blogs (based on their popularity).

Monkey Cage - Washington Post
Washington Post sponsored blog written by political scientists.
Politico
Website focused on politics, policy, and analysis.
National Journal
Publishes daily journalism covering politics and public policy. It is a search and advisory services company offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications and policy brands research for government and business leaders.
FiveThirtyEight [538] - Politics
An award-winning website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. [Note: currently owned by ESPN.]
Real Clear Politics
Includes polls from many sources as well as news (aggregated and original) coverage of politics. Aims for ideological diversity. A rival of the 538 website.
Vox
Politics & policy news and analysis website.

CQ Press Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
Resources covering the United States government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs. Includes access to CQ Researcher Online, CQ Weekly, CQ Almanac, and Historic Documents Series.

Harvard Kennedy School - Think Tank Search
A custom Google search of over 690 think tank websites. For the purposes of this search, think tanks are defined as institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity.

Finding Scholarly Information

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
GREAT PLACE TO START!!! Focused on scholarly political science journals.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
Focused on journals related to public policy. Also includes government publications, grey literature (research reports, etc) from NGOs and international agencies. Remember, this has international coverage.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Includes KEY political science journals back to volume 1 -- however -- usually does not include articles published in the last 5 years!!!
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Among the millions of scholarly-type things on all subjects that it searches it also searches political science journals. However, remember there may be a lot of older junk in here too - be discerning! USE THIS LINK if you are off campus to connect to UNM resources.
Google Scholar will link to some--not all--of the online resources to which the University Libraries subscribes. Use the "Check full text @ UNM" link to see if the resource is available through a UNM subscription. It may also be helpful to look up the journal or citation through UNM eJournals tool.
America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Focus on US (and Canadian) history scholarly articles.

Don't forget to search the LIBRARY CATALOG (the search box in the middle of the library's home page) to help you find books, videos, articles related to your topic.

TIP!

Find a good article on your topic and then FOLLOW ITS CITATIONS! That is, look at its bibliography to see who the author cited and try to find some of those articles AND track who has cited this article using the CITED BY feature in many databases to find some of those articles. One good article can lead you to many!