Research Guides: Political Science (UNH Durham): POLT 402

Scholarly & Peer Reviewed Articles

Scholarly (aka academic) articles are written by and for academics, researchers, and experts in the specific topic or broader subject area of the article.

Peer reviewed (aka refereed) articles are those which have been reviewed prior to publication by other experts in the topic of the article. Often reviewers are external (not members of the journal's editorial staff or board).

Entries in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts indicate whether the article is from scholarly journal; see the Source Type field near the bottom of record.

How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article
Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier; provided by ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)

Peer Review?

Check:

the database record for the article, which sometimes indicates whether a journal uses peer review
the journal website, especially under About Us, Information for Authors, or Submission Guidelines (Example)

Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic and access information for thosands of serials. Entries provide ISSN, publisher, language, subject, abstracting & indexing coverage, full-text database coverage, tables of contents, and reviews written by librarians.

Reading a Social Science Journal Article

How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article
Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier; provided by ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)

Possible Databases for Op-Ed Paper Assignment

Selected databases to get results from recognized, reputable academic sources in the field of political science include

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration. Dates of coverage: 1975-current
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) Index This link opens in a new window
Covers all subjects that bear on public affairs and public policy, including the policy-oriented literature of academic social sciences such as economics, finance, law, education, the military, political science, public administration, international law and relations. Indexes publications from and about all countries, PAIS Archive coverage: 1915-1976; PAIS International coverage: 1972-current
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources in a wide range of disciplines. Funded in part by the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. Coverage is not designed for current material, thus it does not cover information from the most recent 2 to 5 years.

The UNH Library search box provides one-stop searching for books and e-books; articles in newspapers, journals, and magazines; and video and audio

This can be useful if you want

multidisciplinary coverage specifically
initial exploration
additional resources by being comprehensive for articles outside of your primary discipline

You can limit results to peer reviewed journals and by publication date, An advanced search with additional options is available:

Keyword searching across citations, abstracts and full text of articles (even if the full text isn't available to you).

Advantages:

identify relevant articles, especially if your search is pretty specific.
useful for exploratory purposes or when you're "covering all the bases"

Disadvantages:

hard to organize or sort in useful ways
unable to search by subject or limit by anything other than time

Enhance efficiency by adjusting these Google Scholar settings so that

Library Links shows library access links to UNH (so you have quicker access to full text that UNH is subscribing to)

Connect to

Google Scholar

Chicago Style

Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window
Includes fully-searchable text with added features such as tools for editors, a quick citation guide, and searchable access to the Chicago Style Q&A, wherein University of Chicago Press manuscript editors answer readers' editorial style questions. Coverage is for 16th-17th editions