Political Science — Publishing & Tracking PS Research

Bibliographic Software

EndNote: Support and Documentation With this software, have bibliographies and citations automatically formatted in almost 3000 predefined bibliographic styles from leading journals. Can store and manipulate bibliographic information, download citations, etc. Check workshops offered by the Reference Department to learn more.
RefWorks: Support and Documentation

Book Delivery & Book Lists

Book Delivery to Your Office (Faculty Only)"Full-time NU Evanston campus faculty may request to have books retrieved from the stacks and either held at the Main Library Circulation Desk.... or sent to their Evanston campus office through University mail.... request up to 4 items per day Monday through Friday."
Booklist: Upcoming Publications in the Political Science Discipline APSA "... lists upcoming book publications across the broad field of political science. This list is fully reader-generated.
New Books by Northwestern Faculty A record of "the monographic output of Northwestern's faculty. This website serves as a record of all the titles that have been published since this project began in 2005."

Book Reviews

Book Review Index Reviews from over 500 English language periodicals, from 1965 to the present. Located in the Reference Department, Main Library.
Book Review Digest Covers from 1905 to the present. Located in the Reference Department, Main Library.
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals Includes coverage of political science, from 1886-1974. Located in the Reference Department, Main Library.
Expanded Academic ASAP (EXAC) Type in the book title along with the words "and book review." Coverage is 1980 to the present.
Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen (Online) International coverage from 1985 to the present. For earlier reviews, see the print copy, Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen wissenschaftlicher Literatur (IBR), located in the Reference Department, Main Library.
LexisNexis Academic Covers from 1980 to the present.
New York Review of Books Searchable archive of articles and reviews from 1963 to present.
New York Times Book Review Index For books reviewed in 1980 to the present, go to LexisNexis Academic . Choose "Power" search, type in the book title plus the phrase "and book reviews" in the search box, then "Select Sources" and choose NYT. For books reviewed from 1851-2001, go to New York Times (Historical) or the printed New York Times Book Review Index, 1896-1970, located in the Reference Department, Main Library.
Readers guide abstracts online Most coverage is in general interest periodicals, from 1983 to the present.
Social Sciences Abstracts Comprehensive sets of citations and abstracts to scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Includes many links to full text. Also includes databases for subjects in humanities and law.
Web of Science Online coverage from 1956 to the present. Click on Web of Science, Advanced Search, type TI= the book title in the search box, then "Restrict results" from "all document types" to "Book Review."
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Citation Tracking

Web of Knowledge: Citations to Faculty Publications (Formerly ISI Web of Science) CSA lists these uses for cited reference searches:
a) locating current research based on earlier research, reports, etc.
b) finding how many times and where a publication is being cited
c) identifying who is referencing a particular paper
d) exploring how a particular research topic is being used to support other research
e) analyzing the impact of a publication on other research in the field
f) tracking the history of a research idea
g) tracking the research of colleagues, or keeping track of your own research

The database contains cited references in the Social Sciences from 1956 to the present; in the Humanities, from 1975 to the present; and in the Sciences, from 1955 to the present. It is best to simultaneously search all three (which is the default). Use the "Cited Reference Search" to find articles that cite an author or work and obtain a comprehensive bibliography of the author's works: articles, books, communications, proceedings papers, etc. Searches may also lead to related records and articles with citations in common. For instructions, click on "Information for New Users." Results may be printed, saved to a text file, exported in a delimited format for import into personal bibliographic programs such as EndNote or ProCite, or may be sent via email.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This database contains cited references from core journals from 2001 to the present, and cited references from all other journal articles from 2004 forward. In the "Advanced" search box, put in an author's name and choose "References." That does not give you the total: open one citation, find the name and then click on "Cited By." See, too, "Help & Support" and look in its index for "Cited Reference Linking."

Copyright Retention

Authors' Tools: Science Commons "... online tools to help authors exercise choice in retaining critical rights in their scholarly articles, including the rights to reuse their scholarly articles and to post them in online repositories."

Journal Rankings & Reports

Journal Citation Reports JCR is comprised of two editions including the JCR Social Science Edition which "contains data from about 1,500 social sciences journals. Data collected or calculated includes: citation and article counts; impact factor; immediacy index; cited half-life; citing half-life; source data listing; citing journal listing; cited journal listing; subject categories; publisher information; and journal title changes. Online help includes extensive and detailed instructions for locating such information as the most-cited journals in a particular subject area, or how often articles in a journal refer to articles previously published in that journal." Note that not all areas of study are represented. Click on "Information for New Users" to get started.
Web of Science Can be used to (1) identify the most frequent institutional affiliations of authors publishing in a particular journal. An assessment of institutional presence in a particular journal might be said to provide an indication of the reputation of the publication. Also, (2) produce citation reports.

1. Click on "General Search."
2. Under "Source Title" type in the journal name.
3. Use "Publication Year" to limit to a date or date range.
4. Click "Search."

For institutional analyses, click "Analyze Results." Or, in the blue box, click "more choices" and then "institutions."

Journals in Political Science

Journals & Submission Information within Subfields of Political Science Includes association journals, APSA section journals, journals by specialization, and open-access journals. ".... compiled by APSA.... When available, the item will be linked to its home site. All other listings will contain contact information for further details."
Northwestern Journal of International Affairs (NJIA)This is a student-run journal, supported by Northwestern University's Buffet Center for International and Comparative Studies. Issues are available online and also in print within the Main Library, Periodical/Newspaper Reading Room.

Style Manuals and Citation Guides

APA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue University)
AP Stylebook AP does not offer institutional subscriptions, but individuals may subscribe to the online stylebook for a modest fee.
See, too, the " Guide to AP Style."
Chicago Manual of Style (Online) Click on "Link to resource..."
Elephants of style: a trunkload of tips on the big issues and gray areas of contemporary American English / Bill Walsh. Click on "Link to resource..." for this e-book.
English for journalists / Wynford Hicks. Click on "Link to resource..." for this e-book.
Lapsing into a comma: a curmudgeon’s guide to the many things that can go wrong in print--and how to avoid them / Bill Walsh. Click on "Link to resource..." for this e-book.
MLA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue University)
New York Times manual of style and usage / Allan M. Siegal. Click on "Link to resource..." for this e-book.
Newsroom101 An excellent site with over 1500 free exercises in grammar and usage.

For further information, contact:

Lucy E. Lyons
Collection Analysis, Journalism, and Political Science
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 491-2229, fax 467-7899
l-lyons@northwestern.edu
Office Location: Room 2623, 2nd Floor, East Tower, Main Library

Research Guides A-Z -> Directory of Subject Specialists

Last updated: 03/06/08