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Most research assignments should have a combination of different source types within your research. Books are a great resource for doing research. E-books and physical books both fall into this category.
Books differ from peer-reviewed journal articles because books provide general overviews of a topic, whereas articles are shorter and more specific.
Remember: You don't have to read the entire book! If there is one chapter in the book that works for your topic, just read that chapter.
The link to the library catalog will take you to an advanced search. Use these steps to fill in the search box:
Your results will come up as a list of sources with the ability to save links. Along the right side of the page is a sidebar with more filtering options.
The sidebar is labeled "Tweak your results." Use some or all of the following tips to narrow down your results further:
Finding Scholarly Articles
These articles are basically the "bread-and-butter" sources for scholarly research - they're used in every discipline.
What does peer-reviewed mean?
If an article is peer-reviewed that means that before the article was published it was reviewed and scrutinized by other experts in the same field. This process ensures that the sources are reliable and trustworthy.
Why you should use them:
These source types may also be referred to as peer-reviewed article, academic article, or journal article.
Here are some of the best databases to use for finding scholarly articles in political science:
Finding Reference Information
Reference resources are great sources to provide you with background information or context for a topic. These resources can be dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, handbooks, etc.
The best place at the VCSU Library to find reference information is our Credo Reference Database.
Finding Government Documents
Please visit our Government Documents Guide for resources and information about government documents.
Statistics and Data
The U.S. Government collects many kinds of data, and publishes a significant number of reports and literature on that data. As a general rule, U.S. government websites end in the domain names .gov, .mil, or .fed.
Data.gov: US government open datasets resource..
Statistics Canada: Statistics Canada's provides for free and for fee Canadian economic, social and census data plus daily analysis of statistical releases.
OECD Statistics Portal: Some datasets are free, others require a subscription.
UN Millennium Development Goals Indicators: This site presents the official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals around the world.
NationMaster: Publicly-available statistical data on the world's countries, on everything from crime to education, the economy, demographics and more, and allows users to choose a country and/or a set of statistics to graph a comparison between designated countries.
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA): The ARDA compiles an incredible collection of data about religion in the United States.
Gallup: Polling public opinion since the 1930s, Gallup offers extensive public opinion data about a number of issues facing the United States and the world.
National Center for Education Statistics: This resource is an excellent source for all kinds of information related to all levels of education and educational attainment in the United States.
Pew Research Center: Pew is a non-partisan organization which provides statistics and information on many facets of American life.