Research Guides: Political Science: Background Research

Background Research - Introduction

While you might have a particular research topic in mind, you may not be familiar with the events, people, concepts, or issues involved. Using a good reference source for background research can provide you with that information. This page provides relevant reference sources specific to political science including encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and other politically related background resources. Here are several tips when choosing reference materials.

Use a subject encyclopedia such as The Encyclopedia of Political Science to learn about key political concepts.
Use a general reference database such as CQ Press Electronic Library to search for different types of political reference resources.

Key Political Science Encyclopedias

The Encyclopedia of Political Science
Online Edition of the comprehensive political encyclopedia that traces the evolution of political theories, concepts, research frameworks, and political practices from across the world, both Western and non-Western, national and international. Provides an authoritative survey of the state of politics and political science, this work consists of more than 1,500 A to Z signed entries by contributors from more than 30 countries, including 300 overview articles or interpretive essays. The encyclopedia supports all of the core undergraduate courses in political science: American government, comparative politics, international relations, public policy, public administration, political behavior, political theory, and political science methods.
International Encyclopedia of Political Science
Online edition of an eight-volume set that covers every field of politics, from political theory and methodology to political sociology, comparative politics, public policies, and international relations. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order, and a list of entries by subject area appears in the front of each volume for ease of use. The encyclopedia contains a detailed index as well as extensive bibliographical references.

Full-Text Online Reference Databases

CQ Press at SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
The CQ Press Library at SAGE Knowledge (formerly the Political Reference Suite of Online Editions) aggregates reference materials, encyclopedias, and primary source documents on legislative history in the United States.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
Search across a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and more.
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Bibliographies presents constantly updated articles that contain citations (with annotations) and commentaries for sources across the disciplines. Users can search topics and gather relevant journal article and book citations, online resources, data sources, and more.
Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Handbooks Online contains the complete text of the Oxford Handbooks series, including titles in business, history, literature, music, philosophy, and more. Oxford Handbooks Online also contains pre-print articles.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to dictionaries, language reference, Islamic studies and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
Reference Universe (Paratext) This link opens in a new window
Search across a number of reference works to find entries on a topic. Searches across 18-million articles in 40,000 reference books from 750 publishers.
SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
SAGE Knowledge is a social sciences digital library. It includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, business case studies, handbooks, series, videos, professional development titles, and more.

Wiley Interscience Journals
A comprehensive collection of 1,400 full text journals and ebooks in 14 subject areas.