Political Science

When searching in catalogs and databases:

• Be creative in the words you use; if one doesn't work, try something else. Think of words with related meaning, such as natural resource management or restoration or conservation. 
• Begin with keywords, and use the subjects found in the articles that come up to find more information
• Use quotation marks around phrases, so they won't be searched as individual words.
• Use advanced search features in catalogs and databases to limit by date, language, type of article, etc.

You'll find most of the articles you need onliine in databases available through library subscription. Here are many of the most useful databases for Political Science research.

• Academic Search Premier
  Full text for thousands of scholarly publications, including more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975.
  Coverage Dates: 1975 - present
• LexisNexis Academic
  Comprehensive index to newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV news program transcripts, legal material and other reference sources. Primarily focused on news, business and legal topics. Full text.
  Coverage Dates: - Varies by title
• Sociological Abstracts
  Index to articles from journals in sociology, social work and other social sciences.
  Coverage Dates: 1963 - present
• Homeland Security Digital Library
  Quick access to important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources such as theses and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies. HSDL content includes state-of-the-art multi-media offerings and other valuable assets identified by CHDS master's degree participants and instructors.
  Coverage Dates: - present
• America: History and Life
  The definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to present, this database is the most important bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history.
  Coverage Dates: 1964 -
• JSTOR
  FOR OLDER ARTICLES ONLY. An archival collection of journal articles that includes over 140 titles in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. It does not provide access to the most current issues of the journals. JSTOR's agreements with publishers include a gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years. Full Text.
  Coverage Dates: - Varies by Journal

Many journals these days are electronic, or are included in full-text databases. The OSU Libraries Catalog links to these as well as to print resources.

If you are searching for articles about a subject, we recommended that you use a database to do your article searching. This allows you to search many titles at one time (and search print journal contents at the same time).

Another access point to our e-journals is the e-journals list from the main library page. Use this if 1) you have the citation to a specific article in a specific journal; 2) you wish to electronically browse a journal's contents; 3) you wish to verify that OSU has the journal online. 

CQ Researcher contains original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news. Founded in 1923 as Editorial Research Reports, CQ Researcher is noted for its in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.

Less comprehensive but more timely is CQ Weekly, Congressional Quarterly's magazine on government, commerce and politics. It includes weekly reports on the actions and reactions in Congress, and is an easy place to find voting charts.It has an excellent subject index and is emminently browsable!

Don't neglect books when doing research in Political Science. Check the OSU Libraries Online Catalog first. More books can be found in the Summit Catalog, where you can request books from libraries in the Orbis Cascade Alliance to be sent to OSU for you to check out.

Keyword searching is possible, or you can search by author, title, call number, or ISBN if you have it.

Subject searching, however, is the most effective search. OSU uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Some examples of LC subject headings for political science are:

Elections                               

Federal goverment

International relations

Political parties

Public opinion polls

Social movements

Sometimes browsing a shelf can lead to some promising resources. OSU uses the Library of Congress classification system to organize and arrange materials in the library. Most political science materials fall into the "J" call number range and are located on the 5th floor of The Valley Library. More specific groupings of materials include: