Political Science Subject Guide 

Reference sources are incredibly useful for getting you started on a literature review; they provide introductions to and overviews of both broad concepts and specific events, as well as provide bibliographies to the best sources for further reading. 

Blackwell Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

To find more reference sources, both online and print, try this keyword search in Orbis:

"social movement?" AND (reference OR encyclopedia OR handbook)

CATALOGS:for books, government documents, films, archival material, and more.

• Orbis (or Yufind, which is Orbis with a different interface)
• MORRIS (Yale Law Library catalog)
• WorldCat (use Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan to request materials not held at Yale)

Search databases to cast a wide net for journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference reports, government documents, and other materials. Databases provide citations and sometimes full text (or links to possible sources of full text – look for the Yale Links button in the search results).

CSA Illumina
Single search of several databases, including:

• IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences)
• PAIS International
• Sociological Abstracts
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

...and more. Use the “descriptors” (i.e., subject headings) to focus searches or launch new searches—but note that descriptors may vary from database to database.

EBSCO databases

• International Political Science Abstracts
• America:History and Life (includes Canada)
• Historical Abstracts (world history except U.S. and Canada)
• Academic Search Premier

...and more. Choose one of these databases, then click the "Choose Databases" link to select others and search them simultaneously. Use “narrow results by subject” (on left side of results screen) to refine search results; or click on title of a search result to see its subject terms, and then click a subject to launch a new search.

JSTOR
Full text of journals in a wide range of disciplines, including political science, anthropology, history, and area studies. JSTOR’s mission is to provide a trusted archive of scholarly journals; it is not a database for current journal issues. There is typically a gap of one to five years between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR. Useful features: “Articles citing this article” and “Related articles.”

Dissertations and Theses
Search for words in “Citation and abstract” field. To narrow search results, add a “Subject name/code” (e.g., political science). Many titles published since 1997 are available in full text; for earlier years, use Interlibrary Loan.

Want more databases? From the library's Databases & Article Searching page, you can

• browse the A-Z list of databases
• search by database title
• click “Other Options” tab and search “Any Word” to find relevant databases (e.g. search for “middle east”).

LexisNexis Academic and Factiva have the broadest U.S. and international coverage.

ProQuest Newspapers, Alt-Press Watch, and Ethnic NewsWatch can be searched together; among them, they cover a wide range of U.S. news sources.

World News Connection, 1997-present
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996
English-language translations of broadcast transcripts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from countries around the world.
FBIS Daily Reports, 1946-1973 (except 1948-1952) are available in print or microform at Yale's Government Documents & Information Center; contact Julie Linden for information about how to access them.

Want more news resources? Check out the list on the Political Science subject guide and/or browse this even longer list of the Yale databases that have news content.

Yale University Library: International Collections
Yale Library has rich collections in the areas of:

• Africa
• East Asia
• Latin America
• Near East
• Slavic and East Europe
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• West Europe
• Judaica.

Each collection's site includes descriptions of its print collections and links to online resources, including news resources and country-specific data and information. Contact staff in each collection for research assistance.

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