POLI 1119: Canadian Politics and Government (Phillips)

Research databases are specialized search engines for finding journal articles. Here are the top databases for Political Science research:

See the Library's comprehensive list of recommended databases for Political Science for additional options.

To find articles by a specific author (e.g. political scientist Linda Cardinal):

1. Select Author search from the drop-down menu (the default in most databases is to search by keyword)
2. Enter the author's name as follows: Last name, First name (e.g. Cardinal, Linda)

Here is an example from the database Academic Search Complete: 

If the author has a common name (e.g. Michael Smith), you may need to review the results to ensure you have the correct author (e.g. Michael Smith the political scientist, and not Michael Smith the biochemist).

Most library databases allow you to narrow your results to articles published in academic (scholarly) journals.

Here's an example from Academic Search Complete:

The majority of articles in databases come from scholarly peer-reviewed journals, but you should still critically assess your sources to ensure that they have been peer-reviewed.

Many articles in the library databases are available in full text; If not, look for the Check for Full Text button: 

This will take you to an interlibrary loan request form. Once submitted, the article will usually be delivered to your email account in 3-5 working days.