Research Guides: POLS 235: African Politics (HC): Journal Articles

Journals

Journal articles provide in depth scholarly information. They are vetted and improved by peer review. They are usually fairly short in length and focused on discussing one specific issue. The following indexes are good places to find journal articles about political science.

When you find a title of interest, if the full text is not immediately available (as in JSTOR and Proquest), use the Find It button to go to the full text directly or get a request form to have a digital copy of the article sent to your email address in around three days.

See the Search Tips tab for examples of ways to develop terminology and construct search statements.

Subject-Specific Databases

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides access to journal articles in political science and related fields. This is a good way to find quickly research and analysis by political scientists.

Africa-Wide
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Offers access to multi-disciplinary information on Africa including books, journal articles, maps and music recordings. Some materials are in full-text. Covers 19th century-present.
EconLit
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts to economic journals, books, book reviews, dissertations, and working papers. Topics include economic theory and history, monetary theory, labor economics, international, regional and urban economics. Coverage 1969-present.
GreenFILE
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary database covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Excellent resource for finding information on global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
Index Islamicus
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Offers citations to literature on Islam, the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes citations to journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and book reviews from 1906 to present.
Women's Studies International
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, newspapers, dissertations and bulletins, in the core areas of women's studies. Subjects include, feminism, women of color, science, health and technology. Includes different women's studies resources. Covers 1972-present.

Databases Covering All Subject Areas

These two databases are especially useful when looking for very current information. They are also helpful in providing cross-disciplinary approaches to issues.

ProQuest Research Library
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines. You can use filters to see only scholarly or popular articles. Covers 1971-present.
Web of Science
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and MEDLINE. Search for scholarly articles in any discipline, or for articles that cite a known author or work. The publisher keeps this up to date with the most current scholarship,

Tracking Citations Forward in Time

Usually researchers find more sources by looking at the footnotes in an article or book, but these will always be older than the publication you have in hand.
Citation indexes like the Web of Science (which includes sections for the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Science) are set up to search for sources cited in the footnotes of journal articles as soon as they become available.

This allows you to find newer articles which cite the books and articles you already know are key for your topic. By relying on connections between authors rather than subject words and by moving forward in time, citation searching can open up new avenues of research.

Web of Science
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
When you connect, choose the Cited References option to begin.
Enter the author's name: e.g., ivison d* Last name first, First name initial only with asterisk.
Skip Cited Work box
Put the publication year in the Cited Year(s) box
On the next screen, sort the results by Cited Work, choose the relevant results and hit "See Results."
The results screen shows the newest articles first. Most records include a summary of contents, so that you can identify articles of interest.
Use the search box and filters on the left to refine your results.
Google Scholar
To search for cited references in Google Scholar, enter the title of the article or book in quotation marks. In the results list, check the link Cited by [number] for material citing the title you have entered.
Bonus Google Scholar includes books in its results. Web of Science is limited to journal articles only.