Political Science Resources

This selection of specialized resources in Political Science is designed to help you navigate through the wealth of information in Fondren's collections. It is not a comprehensive list.

Finding Articles

online | print & CDROM

Online Indexes

Academic Search Complete (courtesy of Texshare) | includes Full Text

Provides full text for more than 5,000 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

AccessUN | includes Full Text

Access to current and retrospective United Nations documents and publications.

Aluka | includes Full Text

Aluka is a not-for-profit international collaboration of educational and cultural institutions - Fondren Library has guest access through the end of 2007. Aluka seeks to attract contributed collections about Africa from institutions and individuals around the world. Current collections include a) African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes (including excavation reports, manuscripts, field notes, unpublished documentation, travelogues, maps, site plans, and scholarly research), b) African Plants (specimens of African plants linked to a wide range of related images and data, including photographs, drawings, botanical art, field notes, published flora, and other reference works) and c) Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa (documentation of the liberation struggles in Southern Africa, beginning with Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, including archival materials, periodicals, oral histories, books, and photographs).

American Newspapers via Newsbank | includes Full Text | Source List

Includes local and regional newspapers from the United States

Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) | includes Full Text

C.E.E.O.L. is an online archive which provides access to full text PDF articles from 280 humanities and social science journals and re-digitized documents pertaining to Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European topics.

CountryWatch | includes Full Text

Contains detailed textual, data and graphic information for countries and regions. Topics include: country overviews, political history and conditions, economic status, investment overviews, social background, and environmental situation and issues.

CQ Congress | includes Full Text

CQ Congress Collection presents a powerful research and reference tool that provides an analytical survey of the history and development; powers; personalities; current developments; and legislation considered and passed by the United States Congress.

CQ Voting and Elections Collection | includes Full Text

Integrates a wealth of data, authoritative analyses, concise explanations, and historical material. Years of data vary by category

Environmental Policy Index

Corresponds to the printed index, Environmental Periodicals Bibliography. Indexes scientific, technical and popular journals covering the range of environmental topics. (1972-)

Federal Staff Directory

*See password information.*

Provides detailed directory information for the Federal branch. Search by keyword area of responsibility or agency name.
Account/password: On campus/VPN and proxy users

FedStats

Fedstats includes statistical information from 14 United States agencies. Links to many additional agencies are provided.

Hispanic American Periodicals

The Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) covers over 400 scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities, or treating Latin American and U.S. Hispanic topics. A guide to searching the Hispanic American Periodicals Index is available online. (1970- updated annually)

Historical Statistics of the United States | includes Full Text

Topics ranging from migration and health to crime and the Confederate States of America are each placed in historical context by a recognized expert in the field. The fully searchable and downloadable electronic edition will permit users to graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting their own particular areas of interest.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Index (C19)

C19 Index includes bibliographic records for the entire collection of 19th century Parliamentary Papers (79,527 papers), based on Chadwyck-Healey's Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900 by Peter Cockton. Coverage of the 'long 19th century' is provided with an additional 19,423 bibliographic records for the period 1901-1919. (See also House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Fulltext) (1800-1899)

Index to Current Urban Documents | includes Full Text

ICUD Online is a fully searchable index of reports and research generated by local government agencies, civic organizations, academic and research organizations, public libraries, and metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada.

Keesing's Record of World Events | includes Full Text

Keesing's Online is the web-based version of Keesing's Record of World Events / Keesing's Contemporary Archives. It is the authoritative monthly digest of worldwide political, diplomatic and economic affairs. Published continuously since 1931, Keesing's is the standard for thorough, objective coverage of significant events for every country as well as the major international organizations. Events that may have taken days or weeks to unfold are presented in detailed yet concise reports. (1960-)

Latin Americanist Research Resources Project

Indexes the contents of over 350 periodicals published in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Individual articles can be located through a variety of browsing and searching combinations, including article author, title, country, journal title, and date.

Legal Collection (courtesy of Texshare) | includes Full Text

This database contains full text for nearly 250 of the world's most respected, scholarly law journals. The Legal Collection is an authoritative source for information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world.

LexisNexis Academic | includes Full Text | Source List

Includes government and legal information with access to government and political news, legal news, and state and federal statutes and case law. Also includes law reviews, state and country profiles and other news and reference resources.

LexisNexis Congressional | includes Full Text

Provides full-text access to historical (1789- ) and current U.S. Congressional publications including committee hearings, committee prints, Congressional Research Service reports, the American State Papers, the Serial Set (House and Senate documents and reports, Senate executive reports and treaty documents), Serial Set maps, Congressional news, and information about members of Congress and Congressional committees. (1789-)

LexisNexis State Capital | includes Full Text

Gives access to information about states including bills, laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, legislature membership, and newspapers of record.

LexisNexis Statistical | includes Full Text

Provides indexing and abstracts for a wide range of statistical sources from U.S. federal, U.S. state, and international/non-governmental organization publications. Corresponds to the print indexes American Statistics Index, Index to International Statistics, and Statistical Reference Index.

MarciveWeb Docs

Indexes all government publications published by the U.S. Superintendent of Documents. (See also GPO Monthly Catalog.) (1976-)

Military and Government Collection (courtesy of Texshare) | includes Full Text | Source List

Provides full text from over 320 military and general interest publications. Designed to bring current news to all branches of the military. This database also offers indexing and abstracts for over 360 magazines.

P.A.I.S. [Public Affairs Information Service] Combined login with Archive (1915-1976) | includes Full Text

PAIS includes more than 200,000 records from the last ten years relating to the area of public affairs. Citations are to articles from journals, magazines and newspapers, books and book chapters, conference proceedings, and government documents. This database, which has an international focus, is an excellent source for materials on political science, international relations, diplomacy, and any topic which is international in scope. (Alternate interface languages include: French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.) (1975-)

P.A.I.S. [Public Affairs Information Service] Archive Combined login with current file (1975-present) | includes Full Text

Contains more than 700,000 records, originally published in the PAIS Bulletin, 1915-1976. Complements the contemporary coverage of the PAIS International database. (Alternete interface languages include: French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (1915-1976)

PolicyFile

PolicyFile indexes research available online from the completed range of public policy research. PolicyFile draws its content from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Where available, access to home pages, electronic mail addresses and fulltext are made available within individual abstracts.

Polling the Nations

Polling the Nations compiles 300,000 questions and responses from more than 12,000 surveys conducted in the United States and 70 other countries.

State Supreme Court Data Project | includes Full Text

The State Supreme Court Data Project is currently constructing a data base containing information on State Supreme Court decisions in all fifty states. We are in the process of assembling data on the courts of last resort in all fifty states during their 1995 through 1998 sessions. By late 2002, when our current project ends, we will have gathered data for approximately 21,000 decisions reached by over 400 state supreme court justices seated during those years. In addition to the data on the decisions themselves, we have assembled biographical data from published sources for all justices sitting in 1995 through 1998.

United Nations Treaty Collection | includes Full Text

*See password information.*

This database provides indexing of and access to: United Nations Treaty Series (over 40,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties and subsequent actions in their authentic language(s), along with a translation into English and French, as appropriate), Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, and texts of recently deposited multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General that have not yet been published in the UNTS.
Account/password: On campus/VPN and proxy users.

Web of Knowledge previously known as Web of Science | includes Full Text

The Web of Science is an integrated database of three citation indexes: Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). SCI and SSCI have searchable author abstracts and each database may be searched by a variety of other accesses including who the author cites. WOS permits searching one or more of the three databases. SCI on WOS coverage is from 1900 to date. SSCI indexes material from 1956 to date. AHCI indexes materials from 1975 to date. Includes ISIHighlyCited: a directory of over 250 eminent researchers in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences and social sciences. (minimum 1975- (see description))

Westlaw Campus | includes Full Text

Westlaw includes U.S. (including Supreme Court) and state case law after 1944. The system also includes access to: United States Code Annotated, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register (fulltext after 1980), state administrative codes and statutes. Secondary legal materials include the American Jurisprudence encyclopedia, American Law Reports (2d series+ and Federal) and several hundred journals and law reviews. Users may search by citation, parties to legal cases, and by subject.

World News Connection | includes Full Text | Source List

An extremely valuable research tool for anyone who needs to monitor non-U.S. media sources. Analysts from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service's domestic and overseas bureaus monitor timely and pertinent open-source materials.

Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB)

ZDB is the largest database of periodicals and serials in the world. It contains over 1,2 million titles in all languages, published from 1500 to the present day. Electronic editions of periodicals are also included. In addition, ZDB lists over 6 million holdings of these titles in 4,300 German libraries.

Print & CDROM Indexes

Criminal Justice Abstracts

Holdings:  1977-current

Call Number:  HV 6001.C73  REFERENCE

Contains references with abstracts to journal articles, reports, dissertations and books.

Index to House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (CDROM)

Holdings:  1801-1997

Call Number:  J301 .I5  REFERENCE DESK

(Other available formats:  Also available online)

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature

Holdings:  1900-

Call Number:  AI3 .R48  REFERENCE

An author subject index to selected general interest periodicals.

(Other available formats:  Currently 1963-1982 available online via Readers Guide Retrospective)

Sage Urban Studies Abstracts

Call Number:  HT51.S24  REFERENCE

publishes cross-indexed abstracts of important recent literature (plus related citations) on all aspects of urban studies, including government and administration, policy, transportation, spatial analysis, planning, social analysis, community studies, education, economics, law, management, environment, and comparative urban analysis

Serials

In some instances, Fondren Library's access to a serial title is in paper format only. Please check Webcat to search for periodicals not found online.

Reference Works

America Votes. University of Pittsburg Press.

Holdings:  1956-

Call Number:  JK1967.A8    REFERENCE

Provides election statistics.

A-Z Countries of the World. Peter Stalker. Oxford University Press : 2004.

Available Online

Call Number:  G103.5 .S68 2004   STACKS

This handbook provides an up-to-date overview of each country in the world. Featuring maps and vital statistics, it also includes summaries of the social, economic, religious and political issues that shape each country.

Cities of the World. 1999 ed. Gale.

Available Online

Call Number:  G153.4 .C57 1999   REFERENCE

A compilation of current information on cultural, geographic, and political conditions in 193 countries and their cities covering six continents, based on the Department of State's Post Reports. Maps and photos of many cities included.

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. 2d ed. ed. Ian McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press: 2003.

Available Online

Call Number:  JA61 .C665 2003    STACKS

Covering political institutions, concepts, leaders, and thinkers.

Congressional Roll Call. Congressional Quarterly.

Holdings:  1975-

Call Number:  JK1 .C6635   REFERENCE

A chronology and analysis of votes in the House and Senate.

Countries of the world and their leaders yearbook. 2003 ed. Gale.

Call Number:  G1 .C88 2003   REFERENCE

Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook eBook version Edition 2005 Published by Thomson Gale Covering nearly 170 countries, this yearbook is filled with reports from the U.S. Department of State. Entries typically cover politicians, geography, defense, agriculture and trade. Includes information on passport applications, regulations and duties, international health and disease, national holidays and more.

CQ Encyclopedia of American Government

EAG offers thousands of concise, up-to-date explanations of the who, how, and why of American democracy

CQ Researcher. Congressional Quarterly.

Available Online

Holdings:  1991-

Call Number:  H35 .E36    REFERENCE

The CQ Researcher offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of today's most important issues. Each report is on a single topic--more than 12,000 words of text and extensive bibliographies.

CQ Weekly. Congressional Quarterly.

Available Online

Holdings:  Current nos-

Call Number:  JK1 .C15   REFERENCE

CQ Weekly is known as the pre-eminent resource for Congress-watchers who need non-partisan information on Capitol Hill. The award-winning magazine's legislative news and analysis is consistently hailed for its accuracy and comprehensiveness

Other available formats:  Available in microformat from 1948

Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: 2004.

Available Online

Call Number:  DA28 .O95 2004   REFERENCE

50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. McGraw-Hill: 1973.

Available Online

Call Number:  CT103 .M27   REFERENCE

This authoritative set represents the first complete revision ,since first published in 1973. This edition includes approximately 2,000 more entries than the first, with more women, multicultural and international coverage, bringing the total to approximately 7,000 biographies on notables from every part of the world and from all time periods. Includes thousands of photos, a consolidated index, and more.

Europa World Yearbook. Europea Publications .

Holdings:  1967-

Call Number:  JA51 .E8   REFERENCE

The year book is renowned as one of the world's leading reference works, covering political and economic information in over 250 countries and territories, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Facts.com

FACTS.com brings together complete content from the Facts On File World News Digest since 1980 and selected content from six other core reference databases to answer questions about events, issues, statistics and people of the last 20 years.

Handbook of Texas. Texas State Historical Association: 1996.

Available Online

Call Number:  F384 .N48 1996   REFERENCE

The Handbook of Texas Online is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at UT Austin.

World Almanac. Latest ed. Press Pub. Co.

Available Online

Holdings:  1897- (scattered missing issues)

Call Number:  AY67 .N5 W7   REFERENCE DESK

(via FirstSearch)
Includes biographies, encyclopedia entries, facts, statistics. Data is cumulated from several sources, including: World Almanac and Book of Facts, World Almanac of the USA, World Almanac of US Politics, World Almanac for Kids, World Almanac Knowledge Source.

Worldmark encyclopedia of the nations. 2001 ed. Gale.

Available Online

Call Number:  G63 .W67 2001   REFERENCE

Presents easy-to-understand information on 200 countries and dependencies from around the world. Entries discuss a variety of topics in detail, from banking and securities to climate, from government data to demographic statistics. Also includes biographical essays on national leaders.

Finding Books

Check in WorldCat, a combined catalog for over 15,000 libraries worldwide.

You can request interlibrary loan (where Fondren Library borrows the book from another library on your behalf) from within WorldCat, or by completing the request form on the library's Document Delivery website (click here).

Text Collections

Online Text Collections

Brazilian Government Document Digitization Project

A project of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) aimed at digitizing executive branch serial documents issued by Brazil's national government during the period between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available for each province to the end of the Empire to 1889. The series include: Provincial Presidential Reports (1830-1889), Presidential Messages (1889-1993), Ministerial Reports (1821-1960), and the Almanak Administrativo, Mercantile Industrial do Rio de Janeiro (1844-1889).

Columbia International Affairs Online [CIAO]

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 on that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. Each section of CIAO is updated with new material on a regular schedule. Working papers are augmented every month, as are conference proceedings, policy briefs and economic indicators. Links and resources, the schedule of events and the response files are updated weekly. New journal issues and books are added as they become available.

Congressional Research Service Full Text: 1916-2003 See "CRS Full Text" Link

Full text of Congressional Research Service reports (1916-2003: database to be completed by June 2007. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the department within the Library of Congress that, under its statutory charter, works exclusively as a reference and research arm for Members, Committees, and staff of the U.S. Congress.

Digital National Security Archive

The database contains more than 35,000 of the most important, declassified U.S. federal documents that led to policy decisions. The Digital National Security Archive contains fifteen complete collections: Afghanistan, Berlin Crisis 1958-1962, Cuban Missile Crisis, El Salvador, Iran-Contra Affair, Intelligence Community, Iran Revolution, Iraqgate, Military Uses of Space, Nicaragua, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Philippines, Presidential Directives from Truman to Clinton, South Africa, and Soviet Estimate.

Open Access Websites