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POSC 266/366 - Urban Political Economy

Professor Richard Keiser - Spring 2021

Looking for Articles

Start your search by experimenting with lots of different keywords about your topic.  Then, narrow your search once you have learned the distinct, precise subject terms (or "descriptors") each database uses to organize articles.

Find the full text

How do you find the full text of the article if you only have the citation?

  1. Write down the full citation for the article or as much as you know (article title, journal title, date).
  2. Go to the library's Journals list.
  3. Search for the title of the journal.
  4. Determine if we have the journal in our collection and, if so, how to access it (in print or online).
  5. If online, follow the link and search for the issue you need.
  6. If in print, get the call number and locate the issue in the library stacks.
  7. If we don't have the journal, request the article via interlibrary loan.

Political Science and International Relations

The following are core databases for Political Science research.

Social Sciences

Depending on your topic, you may also find it helpful to search for articles in these databases.

Interdisciplinary

Search broad, interdisciplinary databases in order to find articles from areas in which you might not have thought to look.

Cited Reference Searching

How can you start your research paper with just one relevant article? 

  1. Use the bibliography and locate some of those papers.
  2. Note the authors and journals mentioned in this paper.  Look those up.
  3. Use "cited reference searching" to find other papers you might be interested in, based on this paper.