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POLS 3302: Research and Analysis in Political Science

Starting Your Research

The first step is to choose a topic. We recommend you consider the following:

  1. What topic are you interested in?
  2. If your topic was set by the instructor, what does your instructor want you to learn by doing the research?

Once the topic is selected, you should:

  1. Do a preliminary search for background information on the topic using a reference source, such as Credo Reference (Credo).
  2. Take note of significant people, places, events, etc. Consider why your topic is important to learn about today.
  3. Narrow your topic. Focus on the aspects that the paper will discuss.
  4. Create initial thesis statement.

  5. Search for scholarly articles (recently published academic research) that support your thesis. You can find them using library databases like Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) or JSTOR Arts & Sciences I-XV (JSTOR). For additional databases, please see the "Find Articles" tab or our A-Z List.

Background Research

Search the database Credo to familiarize yourself with and explore your topic. Credo Reference gives you access to over 600 reputable encyclopedias online. Short encyclopedia articles can help you to quickly identify concepts, topics, issues, and keywords for your topic.   Credo is a scholarly version of Wikipedia and comes with properly formatted citations!

Suggested Databases

Find scholarly articles for your literature review by searching by keyword in the following databases. 

Political Science Complete is a subject specific research database. It's a searchable collection of journals, e-books and other resources covering topics in Political Science and related discipline. This database will have direct links to full-text either through hyperlinks or the "Find it" button.

These databases cover many topics. Articles relating to political science will be included.

Since political science is a wide-ranging field, you may find it helpful to search additional databases collections in related disciplines--such as criminal justice, history and sociology.

Google Scholar is a search tool from Google, separate from its main search engine, with its own URL (http://scholar.google.com). According to Google, its purpose is “to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.”

Setting up Google Scholar to connect to our library resources: Please see How to Set Up Google Scholar for Off-Campus Use for instructions.  If we have access to the resource you will see the "Find it @A&M-SA" link.

Google Scholar showing "Find it @A&M-SA" link. Screenshot.

You will need to enter your A&M-SA network username and password to get into the library's databases from off-campus. If you need assistance with this, please visit our Off-Campus Access page. If you are on-campus and using either the Internet Explorer or Firefox browser, you will be automatically recognized as a member of the A&M-SA community.

Limitations: You can not limit your search to peer reviewed articles only.  Google Scholar does not always connect to our sources. A book or journal article may be in the library even if you cannot access it through Google Scholar links. Never purchase an item without checking the library's resources first. Remember, you can also borrow items from other libraries for free.  You can read more about searching effectively in Google Scholar here.  

 

 

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Search Tips

Search Tips

  • Enter each search term or concept in its own box. You are using the 'and' connector to find articles with each of those terms.
  • Quotation marks searches the database for those words together as a term, such as "minimum wage".
  • An asterisk (*) searches the database for that word plus any variants of the root word. For example, work* will search for work, worker, workforce, and workplace. 
  • Use the OR between words to search for synonyms, such as "low income" OR "poverty".
  • Use the limits to filter for a particular source type, such as peer reviewed journals
  • To refine by method enter terms such as quantitative, qualitative or empirical. Note: This method doesn't always work because these descriptors need to be listed in the article's record or abstract in order for them to appear on your results list.  
  • View more search tips and videos on the Research Help Tutorials tab on the guide

What is a Scholarly Article?

What is a scholarly article?

Many professors require students to cite scholarly journal articles in their research papers.

Scholarly articles are written by academics who are experts in their field and publish in scholarly journals. Peer-reviewed articles are scholarly articles that have been reviewed and vetted by other experts in the field (i.e., the author's peers) before the journal accepts them for publication.

Many databases allow you to restrict your searches to scholarly journals, sometimes called "refereed" or "peer reviewed" journals.

Types of scholarly articles

There are two different kinds of scholarly articles political scientists cite frequently in their work.  

  • Research articles present original research.  They typically start with a review of the literature and a description of how the study contributes our knowledge of the subject.  They then describe their research methods (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) and present their findings. 
  • Review articles summarize the research being done on a particular topic and/or the theoretical approaches commonly taken.  They will reference many research articles recently published on a topic.  Review articles are a great place to start if you want to learn more about a subfield of sociology! 

Take a look at a sample research article from the journal American Journal of Political Science. 

Take a look at a sample review article from the journal Annual Review of Political Science.