InfoGuides: POSC 4380: Politics of Western and Central Europe: Getting Started

Discover Search

Scholarly Articles

Simultaneously searches dozens of our databases, including Web of Science and ebook collection, plus the library catalog. Note:

Watch dates on sources carefully - use limiters if needed.
Choices to refine search results are to the right of the results list
May select Scholarly (Peer reviewed) journals. This is at the publication level - evaluate the item you intend to use.
Full text often available by clicking link under "View It" on item record.
If not available in print or electronically, use Interlibrary Loan.

Core Resources

Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Indexing of more than 11,000 peer-reviewed journals and full text of more than 8,000, with coverage in such subject areas such as, biology, chemistry, criminal justice, economics, environmental science, history, marketing, political science, and psychology.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
** Expanded access continues as we work to implement a new contract for JSTOR's new all-access model, which will provide access to all archival journals and primary source content. **

Back volumes for 880 journals from the very first issue but excluding the most current 2-5 years. General subject areas include art & architecture, Asian studies, botany, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, language & literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology and statistics.
Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver, Coverage: Dates vary with beginning date of journal., Truncation and Wildcard: + and ----, Search Tips: Boolean commands are supported. Use quotation marks to search keywords as a phrase.
Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text from 860+ scholarly journals, with excellent coverage for criminology, psychology, sociology, health sciences and the humanities. Numerous journals also cover education, general and international business, and management.
Format: Full-text, Coverage: 1999-present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and *, Search Tips: Search results may include material earlier than our subscription. DO NOT pay for articles: use our Interlibrary Loan

Research Process

The research process can look different for everyone, and may look different from project to project, but most will have a few common features:

Begin with a question you want answered. What are you most interested in learning?
Decide what type of information you need: do you need newspapers, books, or scholarly articles?
Gather and evaluate information: are your sources current, reliable, applicable, and unbiased?
Is your question answered? Do you need more (or different) information? Do you need to change your question?
Repeat 1-4 until you're ready to use the information: make a decision, write a paper, present, etc.

Don't forget to ask a librarian for help!

Developing Keywords

Make a research question from your topic.

For example: "What is currently being done to help conserve the endangered Giant Panda population?"
- Keywords: conserve and Giant Panda

Think of related words.

Conserve: conservation, preservation, protection
Giant Panda: panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca (scientific name).

Get searching!

Search Strategies

Boolean Operators are words and symbols that group keywords in specific ways.

Group keywords together with quotation marks to search as an exact phrase. Example: “Alfred Hitchcock”
Use AND to combine several keywords or phrases. Example: “opening credits” AND typography
Use OR to search for information about one term, and also articles about another term. Example: film OR cinema
Use the asterisk * if you want to search multiple iterations of a keyword. Example: sequenc* = sequence, sequences, sequencing

POSC 4380: Politics of Western and Central Europe