Political science subject guide

Undergraduate Students

Getting started with your research...

Find definitions and resources related to political theory

Locate case studies in library databases

Learn about peer review and how to evaluate peer reviewed articles

Books & Ebooks

Sofia Discovery tool - find print books and ebooks available at Concordia
- Worldcat: books worldwide

Canada Commons (DesLibris/Canadian Public Policy Collection) - Canadian scholarly ebooks, ebooks, government documents,policy documents and other grey literature (non-governmental organization publications, community organization publications)

Newspapers

Canadian Newsstream - Canadian English daily newspapers, including the Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, National Post and many regional and local papers.

Eureka.cc - Canadian/Quebec newspapers and magazines in French and English, includes La Presse, Le Devoir, and L'Actualité.

US Newsstream - Major US daily newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall street journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Boston Globe, LA Times, USA Today and many more regional and local newspapers.

International Newsstream - news content from outside the U.S. and Canada, in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Danish, See the Title List.

Factiva - Access to the full-text of international newspapers (Times London, New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian UK, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, etc.) including 500 newswires (Reuters, Associated Press), broadcast transcripts (BBC, NPR, CNN etc), magazines.

Historical Newspapers - Canada, US and international

Governmental, political, & law sources

Government Information

Government Information Subject Guide - start here to locate government publications, reports, commissions, etc.

Country reports (Independent, NGO & IGO publishers)

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Viewpoint - access by Geography or Topics > Politics
OECDiLibrary - browse by country & theme
International Monetary Fund: IMF Country Information -country reports and publications back to the 1990s by country.
World Bank: Countries and Economies - Mainly economic information with some demographic and social statistics.
Amnesty International: Countries
World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - search by country, region or minority group
- Peoples Under Threat - online map
- Peoples Under Threat - Annual reports (2006-2021)
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) - articles from government research organizations, independent think tanks, university analysis centers, and scholarly journals.
HeinOnline World Constitutions Illustrated: Contemporary & Historical Documents & Resources - current constitution of every country in the world in its original language along with at least one English translation

Law sources

CanLii: Canadian Legal Information Institute (2001 - present)

Court judgments (cases) from all Canadian courts; the Supreme Court of Canada, federal courts, and the courts in all Canada’s provinces and territories.
Decisions from many federal and provincial administrative tribunals.
Consolidated statutes and regulations and the annual statutes of every jurisdiction in Canada.
Commentary: secondary law materials, from law books, journals, articles, reports, and other resources.

HeinOnline Law Jounral Library - vHeinOnline Law Jounral Library - law journals (U.S. Canadian, International), case law and Statutes of Canada, Provincial Statutes of Canada, and more.

Citing your sources

Concordia Citation Guides (APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago)

Government Information Citation Guides (Canadian, American, Legal)

Graduate Students

Graduate Library Orientation

September 2024

Grad Library Orientation Slides (ppt)

Grad Library Orientation Handout (PDF)

Library Services for Graduate Students

Services and Spaces

Services for graduate students include borrowing privileges (up to 100 items), article delivery, help & how-to guides, dissertation support, consultations, and workshops.

Find out more about library support for graduate students.

Find out What's New at Concordia Library

Getting Organized

Zotero - manage and organize the bibliographic references you find in library Sophia Discovery tool, databases, and on the web

Using Zotero workshop handout (PDF)

Research Data Management Guide - how to organize and store your data

Bibliometrics and Research Imapct Guide - tools to measure your research impact

Spectrum - Concordia's Open Access Research Repository, includes theses and dissertations

Check out the GradProSkills Library Workshops

Library Research Resources

Sofia Discovery tool - find print books and ebooks available at Concordia
- "Browse the shelf" to see neighbouring books to the item that you have selected
- Unfold the "description" for more information on the book itself and to find similar books on topic
- "Check availability" to find out whether Concordia has an e-book version

Worldcat: search multiple library catalogues, worldwide

BAnQ - National Library of Quebec (at Berri-UQAM metro) - all residents of Quebec can get a free library card, plus access to a wide array of online sources

Canada Commons (DesLibris Documents/Canadian Public Policy Collection) - ebooks, government documents and other grey literature (non-governmental organization publications, community organization publications)

Review Journals

Annual Reviews of Political Science - literature reviews on poli sci topics

Annual Reviews of Law and Social Science - literature reviews on legal and social science topics

Databases

Political Science Complete - full-text article database, excellent journal coverage in political science, useful subject thesaurus

International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA) - full-text and citation databases, good international coverage

HeinOnline Law Journal Library - law school journals, peer reviewed content, contains Canadian, American and some international law

ProQuest Combined Canadian - search for articles in Canadian politics and government, Canadian public policy and public administration, Quebec politics, Canadian federalism and parliament

JSTOR - archive of multidisciplinary journals, search for articles in Classical political theory and philosophy, Hellenistic, Roman, Medieval political philosophy

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global - search for theses and dissertations worldwide

Article Finder - a search tool for known-item article searches

Sage Research Methods Online - encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, journal articles and videos dealing with research methods in both theoretical and practical terms. It also includes Methods Map, a visualization tool that tries to map relationships between methods.

The Sage handbook of qualitative data collection (2018) - ebook

Research Methodologies and Handbooks

Use the following keyword searches for lists of print books and ebooks on methodology and research in Political Science, Public Administration, and the social sciences more broadly. Each link will bring you to page of results.

Specific Political Science Methodologies

"Comparative government -- Research -- Methodology"

"Democratization -- Research -- Methodology"

"International relations -- Methodology"

"International relations -- Research -- Methodology"

"International relations -- Study and teaching"

Public Administration Methodologies

"Public administration -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"

"Public administration -- Research -- Methodology"

Political Science Methodologies

"Policy sciences -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"

"Political science -- Methodology"

"Political science -- Methodology -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"

"Political science -- Research"

"Political science -- Research -- Handbooks, manuals, etc"

"Political science -- Research -- Methodology"

"Political science -- Study and teaching"

Social Science Methodologies / Quantitative / Qualitative

"Quantitative research"

"Qualitative research -- Methodology"

"Social sciences -- Research -- Methodology"

Canadian Newsstream - Canadian English daily newspapers, including the Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, National Post and many regional and local papers.

Eureka.cc - Canadian/Quebec newspapers and magazines in French and English, includes La Presse, Le Devoir, and L'Actualité.

International Newsstream - news content from outside the U.S. and Canada, in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Danish, See the Title List.

Historical Newspapers - Canada, US and international

The Hill Times - weekly newspaper that covers Canadian federal politics.

CPI.Q - Canadian magazines and journals

Concordia Library Special Collections - an array of rare books, archival materials, maps, photographs, and other materials

Government Infromation Guide - custom search through government websites and catalogues, find digitized government publication databases

Law & Criminal Justice Guide - online resources for law, legal studies, criminology

Country profiles & reports

Opinion polls - databases polling data and surveys

Statistics & Data (DLI) - tools for locating statistics, agreggate and microdata

Peer review, Open access and Predatory publishing

How do you know if your journal is peer reviewed? - tools to help you determine the journal's status

Open Access Publishing - What is Open Access? What are the different types of Open Access? How do you assess good Open Access publications?

Predatory Publishers

Predatory publishers tend to campaign aggressively for academics to submit articles, charge authors high fees (often hidden at first) but do not offer sufficient quality control or thorough editorial process.

Many of them accept papers without an appropriate editorial board or peer review process, often including works with poor writing and low-quality content.

UBC Library Guide: Publishing a Journal Article & Avoiding Predatory Publishers