Guides: POSC 491: Honors Seminar: Home

Welcome to the library guide for POSC Honors Seminar! On this guide, you will find information to help you explore the necessary materials for your research project. If you ever have any questions, need help using a library or online resource, or want personalized assistance researching a topic, please reach out to me directly through email (nicholas.dandrea@pepperdine.edu) or by scheduling an appointment.

Research Starting Points

In addition to the resource below, you're always welcome to reach out to me directly if you'd like to chat about how to get going on your project as you're making those first steps. The journal linked is a highly influential review journal; each article summarizes and synthesizes political research into one paper.

Annual Review of Political Science
This journal publishes reviews of existing research on political research. The articles in it are great for academic introductions to big topics and finding other research through their citations. Search here for issues from 1998-2005.

Academic Articles & Books

Scopus

Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed scientific journals, books and conference proceedings covering fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Oxford Academic Online
Oxford University Press's academic research platform, providing access to books and journals. To limit to items available to Pepperdine patrons, select "All content I have access to" under "Availability"
JSTOR

Archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering the Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.
HeinOnline
Access to online research on legal history. Visit HeinOnline LibGuides for tips on searching this database.

Below you'll be able to search for books at Pepperdine Libraries and beyond. Here are some useful tips for searching our library:

Use the filters to improve your results. I recommend using the library filter (shows you what we have) and the format filter (choose between ebooks, print books, articles, etc).
Use the tags in the Subjects area of a book's record to find similar books. They're available after you click on a book's title in the results page.
Use quotation marks around phrases to enhance your results. For example, "Pepperdine University" will produce only results that contain those two words together and in that order
Use TI: before your search words to search just the titles of things and use AU: before an author's name to see their works

Data & Statistics

ICPSR Direct

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research collection of social science data. First time users will be asked to create an ICPSR MyData account.

Harvard Dataverse
The Harvard Dataverse Repository is a free data repository open to all researchers from any discipline, both inside and outside of the Harvard community, where you can share, archive, cite, access, and explore research data.
Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search is a search engine for datasets. Using a simple keyword search, users can discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web.

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)

Census and survey data from around the world for integrated and comparative research. Must create a free account profile to create data sets.

Data Rescue Project Portal
The Data Rescue Project (DRP) serves as a clearinghouse for preserving at-risk public information. Their portal centralizes these efforts, providing a user-friendly gateway to over 1000 preserved datasets.

General Social Survey (NORC) Data Explorer
Contains demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest.

Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)

A database with over hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from national, international, public, and private sources.

Data.Gov
Here you will find US Government data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
US Census Data
Provides access to demographic, economic, housing, and geographic data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas from surveys and censuses. Includes the American Community Survey and Decennial Census.
American National Election Studies
Key trends in American public opinion and politics from 1948 to the present available for download.
MIT Election Data
A clearinghouse for data sets on federal, state, and local elections.
Vital Statistics on Congress
Vital Statistics’ purpose is to collect and provide useful data on America’s first branch of government, including data on the composition of its membership, its formal procedure (such as the use of the filibuster), informal norms, party structure, and staff.
Pew Research Center: Tools & Datasets
Pew Research Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.

UN Data
The United Nations digital platform for bringing together international statistical databases.
WorldBank Data
Online source for the World Bank's data.
OECD Data Explorer
Contains statistical data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), covering various social and economic indicators for member countries
National Statistical Offices
Centralized list of statistical offices in each country, provided by the UN.
Migration Data Hub
Data from the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to improve immigration and integration policies through authoritative research and analysis, opportunities for learning and dialogue, and the development of new ideas to address complex policy questions.
Global Barometer
Collaborative survey project covering six regions: Africa (Afrobarometer), East and Southeast Asia (Asian Barometer), Central and South America (Latinobarómetro), the Middle East (Arab Barometer), and countries of former Soviet Union (Eurasia Barometer).
World Values Survey
Designed to enable a crossnational comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe.
EuroStat
Central location to search for data and statistics from the European Union.

Newspapers

New York Times (NYTimes.com)

**Access requires logging in with a Pepperdine email on the NY Times homepage. Find step-by-step log-in instructions on the access guide to log in. **
Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com)

**Access requires logging in with a WSJ.com account. Register using your Pepperdine email address.** Get unlimited access to WSJ.com, WSJ mobile apps, curated newsletters and podcasts.
Economist (Economist.com)

Full-text access to The Economist magazine, covering 1997 to present and related web content.
Nexis Uni

Features news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. For help on how to use Nexis Uni, visit the research guide.This database is only available to current Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff.
U.S. Major Dailies (ProQuest Newspapers)

Access to The New York Times (1980 - present), Washington Post (1987 - present), Los Angeles Times (1985 - present), Chicago Tribune, (1985 - present), and Wall Street Journal (1984 - present).

Gray Literature

Gray (Grey) literature is information produced outside of traditional academic and commercial publishing channels. This includes writings, reports, and other publications produced by research centers, think tanks, banks, and similar organizations. These aren't peer-reviewed in the same way academic research is, but they can be useful sources for your work.

These links are to a few places you can search multiple sources at once, but locating gray literature is tough and I'm happy to help if needed!

NGO Search
Custom Google search that searches intergovernmental organizations. Maintained by the ALA's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT).
IGO Search
Custom Google search that searches intergovernmental organizations.
Think Tank Search
Think Tank Search searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. Maintained by Harvard University.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)

Materials related to international affairs, starting from 1991, including working papers from universities and NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.
NBER Working Papers
Pre-print (not yet peer-reviewed) research from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private non-profit engaged in quantitative analysis of the American economy.