Political science

1. Sources for Background Information

1.1 Dictionaries

• Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science (Credo Reference)
• Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (Oxford Reference Online)
• Dictionary of Political Biography (Oxford Reference Online)
• Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (Oxford Reference Online)

1.2 Encyclopedias

• International Studies Encyclopedia (Blackwell)
  extensive, detailed resource for international studies and international relations. Includes substantial review essays that range from art in international relations to multilateral diplomacy to xenophobia.
• Encyclopedia of Political Science (CQ Press)
  comprehensive survey of the world of politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century
• Blackwell Reference Online
  Includes: A Companion to American Foreign Relations; A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics; A Companion to International History 1900 – 2001; The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology; A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  Includes: Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy; Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security; Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
• Encyclopedia of Nationalism:
  Volume 1 (Fundamental themes) and Volume 2 (Leaders, movements, and concepts)
• Encyclopedia of Political Economy (Routledge)
• Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought (Routledge)
• Encyclopedia of Government and Politics (Routledge)

1.3 Country Profiles

• CIA World Factbook
• Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
  country, industry and management analysis
• Europa World Plus
• Statesman's Yearbook Online
• U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies
• More country reports are listed here

1.4 Specialized Country Profiles

• Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP)
  includes global political and demographic indicators related to political stability
• Correlates of War
  Provides access to quantitative data in international relations and the history of wars and conflict among states
• Economic Freedom of the World reports
  reports and data from the Fraser Institute
• Failed States Index
  ranking of countries based on indicators of risk
• Freedom in the World reports
  Freedom House’s comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
  includes regularly updated country profiles
• International Country Risk Guide (ICRG)
  monitors 161 countries, rating a wide range of risks to international businesses & financial institutions
• Political Risk Services: Country Data
  Provides political and economic data on over 140 countries and forecasts political risk ratings
• Polity IV Project
  Data series with measures of democratic governance
• Population Index, 1986 - 2000
  world population literature
• Transparency International
  reports, statistics, and analysis of global corruption
• World Development Indicators (WDI) Online (World Bank)
  development indicators, with time series for 208 countries from 1970-2005

2. Searching the Library Catalogue

Use the basic word(s) anywhere or advanced keyword search in the library catalogue. You can search using words like - Canada, Canad?, histor?, etc.

Search tips

Get more catalogue search tips.

Searching Using Subject headings

Often keywords–natural language terms–are too diverse to round up everything in the catalogue on your topic.

To overcome this problem, once you have found some relevant items by searching using your own words, click on the title and examine the full view of each, especially the section called "LC Subject", where you will find the uniform subject heading used for your topic, and then redo your search using the "Subject begins with ..." option.

3. Core and Additional Databases

3.1 Core Databases

• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (ProQuest)
  indexes books, book chapters, and journals related to anthropology, economics, politics and sociology
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (ProQuest)
  provides abstracts of journal articles, citations to book reviews, and abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers in political science and international relations.
• International Political Science Abstracts (EBSCO)
  indexes journals related to political science, international relations
• PAIS International (ProQuest)
  indexes journals and magazines related to global public policy and social issues
• Google Scholar
  free, multidiscplinary index that can link you to some of McGill's resources
• CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online
  full text documents and citations from international relations journals, policy briefs by international think tanks

3.2 Additional Databases

• Annual Review of Political Science
  synthesizes primary research literature in political science
• Francis (ProQuest)
  multilingual, multidisciplinary database covering the humanities and social sciences
• Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
  indexes worldwide scholarship in history and the social sciences, covering topics from 1450 to the present
• JSTOR and Political Science on JSTOR
  retrospective scholarly journals (there is a 3-5 gap for most journals)
• PAIS Archive, 1915 - 1976 (ProQuest)
  retrospective index of publications relating to global public policy and social issues
• Social Sciences Citation Index (via Web of Science)
  multidisciplinary database
• Scopus
  multidisciplinary database. Includes citation-searching functions
• Women in Politics Bibliographic Database (Inter-Parliamentary Union)
  citations to literature related to women in politics

3.3 Area Studies Databases with Political Aspects

• ABSEES (American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies) (EBSCO)
  multidisciplinary database that covers East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union
• Africa-Wide - NiPAD , 19th century to present(EBSCO)
  search across 40 integrated international databases that index literature related to Africa
• America: History and Life (EBSCO)
  indexes scholarly articles about American history and government up to the present
• Bibliography of Asian Studies
  indexes western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia
• HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index) Online
  index to journal articles about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States
• Index Islamicus (ProQuest)
  indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world
• Index to Jewish Periodicals (EBSCO)
  index to Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish and Middle Eastern affairs
• Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies (EBSCO)
  indexes research, policy and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa
• PRISMA (Chadwyck-Healey)
  full-text articles in the interdisciplinary academic study of Hispanic and Latin America and the Caribbean Basin

3.4 Legal

• GlobaLex
  guides to international legal research. Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law. Highly recommended!
• Constitutional Documents International Constitutional Law Project
  constitutions of the world's countries
• EUR-Lex
  official journal of the European Union; EU treaties, legislation, case-law, and legislative proposals
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Ovid)
  access to legal literature worldwide, covering all forms of foreign (non-Anglo-American) law
• Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (Wilson)
  indexes articles from the most important legal periodicals and law books
• JUSTIS
  online legal library of UK, EU and Irish case law from 1163 to the present
• LegalTrac (Gale)
  index to Canadian and American legal literature
• LEXIS-NEXIS
  legal information, international news and business information
• PARLIT Database (Inter-Parliamentary Union)
  parliamentary law and practice index
• United Nations Treaty Collection
  includes League of Nations and UN Treaty Series

3.5 International Organizations

• IGO search
  Custom Google search of websites of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), comprising over 3000 bodies including the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, etc. Created by the Union of International Associations.
• AccessUN (Readex)
  Indexes UN documents and publications from 1946-present
• United Nations Official Documents (ODS)
  Full-text U.N. masthead documents from 1993-present, and resolutions from 1946-present.
• European NAvigator
  contains 15,000+ documents on the historical and institutional development of the European Union from 1945 to the present day. Includes photos, audio and video clips, posters and cartoons, maps, news articles, personal correspondence, government documents, and more
• MyiLibrary
  e-book collection of publications from international governmental organizations (International Labor Organization, International Organization for Migration, UN AIDS, WHO)
• NBER Working Papers (National Bureau of Economic Research)
  economic policy working papers
• Source OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
  OECD publications and policy research working papers
• World Bank e-Library
  World Bank publications and policy research working papers

3.6 International Security Databases

• Cold War Files: Interpreting History Through Documents
  historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War
• Digital National Security Archive
  digital copies of declassified US government documents
• Center for International Development and Conflict Management
  interdisciplinary research center at the University of Maryland. that seeks to understand and prevent conflict. The site includes publications as well as two significant data sets: the International Crisis Behavior Project and the Minorities at Risk Project
• Jane’s Military and Security Assessments
  data, intelligence reports, and analysis related to national and international defence, security, and risk developments
• National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
  publications and datasets, including the Global Terrorism Database and the Terrorism & Preparedness Data Resource Center
• Peace Research Abstracts, 2000 -
  articles in areas related to peace research, including conflict resolution, international affairs, peace psychology
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
  Includes:
• • Facts on international relations and security trends database
  • Multilateral peace operations database
  • Data on military expenditure
  • Data on arms transfers
  • Data on arms production
  • Database on national export control systems
• SIPRI Yearbook: World Armaments and Disarmament
• US National Security Archive
  digital copies of declassified US government documents

3.7 Current International News Sources

Please visit the library's guide to newspapers.

3.8 Conference Papers and Dissertations

• eScholarship@McGill
  open access digital repository of publications and theses of McGill University faculty and students
• APSA conference papers, 2002 -
  American Polical Science Association (APSA)
• Index to Theses, 1716 -
  theses with abstracts by universities in Great Britain and Ireland
• Political Studies Association Conference Proceedings, 1994 -
  Political Studies Association (PSA) in the UK
• PapersFirst, 1993 - (OCLC)
  index of papers presented at conferences worldwide
• ProceedingsFirst, 1993 - (OCLC)
  index of worldwide conference proceedings
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 1861 - (Proquest)
  doctoral dissertations and master's theses accepted in the USA and Canada

4. Selected websites

4.1 University departments and working groups

• McGill University Department of Political Science
• McGill-Concordia Laboratory of the Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics (QICSS)
• REGIS: Research Group in International Security
  Université de Montréal & McGill

4.2 Guides and links

• Guides to finding government information by country
  from the University of Colorado at Boulder
• Keele Guide to Political Science on the Internet
• Keele Guide to Political Thought and Ideology on the Internet
  Links to information on important theories and thinkers
• Poly-Cy
  From West Virginia University
• UChannel
  Audio and video recordings of public affairs lectures, panels and events from academic institutions all over the world

4.3 Elections

• ACE Electoral Knowledge Network
  Extensive information on electoral systems and theory worldwide. Includes an Election Guide with electoral results, calendars, etc. for individual countries.
• Election Resources on the Internet
• PARLINE Database (Inter-Parliamentary Union)
  information regarding national parliaments, election results

5. Other Resources

Chicago Manual of Style

• Quick guide
• Full manual online

Related Subject Guides

• Canadian Politics
• Country Reports & Profiles (Government Information Service)
• Data Resources at EDRS (Electronic Data Resources Service)
• European Union (Government Information Service)
• International Development
• United Nations (Government Information Service)
• Quebec student movement