Guides: Political Science: Home

Introduction

The University of Pennsylvania's Department of Political Science offers courses in major political subfields of American government and politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory. Each section of this guide includes listings of resources used in these four major political science subfields and other selected subfields taught in most political science curriculums.

Quick Research Tips

Academic, scholarly, and peer-reviewed books, journals, and articles are considered appropriate sources for college-level research and writing assignments. Here are a few tips when searching for books, journals, and articles:

The library catalog contains books, journal articles, databases, CDs and DVDs, and other items in the Penn Libraries' collections.
If you need articles for which you already have the title or citation, use Articles+ or the PennText Article Finder citation tool.
Start your search for articles in a general database such as EBSCO MegaFILE.
Use a subject database such as Worldwide Political Science Abstracts for political science-specific articles.
If your assignment requires scholarly, academic, or peer-reviewed journal articles, use a scholarly database such as JSTOR.
If you cannot locate a book or journal article in Franklin, request it through the Borrowdirect/EZBorrow & Interlibrary Loan.

Are you new to political science research? Oxford University Press publishes the following Very Short Introductions. Each book offers a short, concise, yet authoritative overview of a topic related to political science and international relations. It is designed to provide easily accessible introductions to complex topics.