Research Guides: Political thought and philosophy: Recommended: start here

Reference and background information

Oxford Companion to Philosophy by Ted Honderich
ISBN: 9780198661320
Publication Date: 1995
Political Theory : An Encyclopedia of Contemporary and Classic Terms by Scott John Hammond
ISBN: 9783133392020

Oxford Handbooks Online
Oxford Handbooks Online provides scholarly overviews of topics through in-depth articles. We have access to handbooks in philosophy, political science, and psychology.

Essential resources -- start here

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts from ProQuest
- This link opens in a new window
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts from journal articles, books, essays, book reviews, working papers, technical reports, theses, and dissertations in the social sciences related to politics. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1975-present.

The database is building on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts, published by IFI / Plenum, 1975-2000, and ABC POL SCI, published by ABC-CLIO, 1984-2000. Over 1,700+ titles are being monitored for coverage; of these, 67% are published outside the United States.

The references cited in the bibliography of the source article have been included for citations to core journals in political science, added to the database since 2001, and for all journals added since 2004. Each individual reference may also have links to an abstract and/or to other papers that cite that reference; these references are linked both within Worldwide Political Science Abstracts and across other social science databases from ProQuest. All records added since 2000 are indexed using a thesaurus of over 3,000 terms.

Major areas of coverage include:

Comparative politics
Developing nations
Disarmament
Economic policy
Electoral systems
Environmental policy
Government/Political systems
History and theory of political science
International relations/trade
Labor relations
Military policy
Methodology and research technology
Political behavior
Political economy
Political psychology
Politics and law
Politics and communication
Politics and religion
Politics and society
Public administration
Security and defense
Welfare systems
EconLit with Full Text from EBSCOhost
- This link opens in a new window
EconLit indexes citations, abstracts, and full text of journal articles, books, dissertations, and working papers on all aspects of economics. You can do cited reference searches and limit to scholarly sources. 1886-present.

HeinOnline Law Portal
The HeinOnline portal offers a large and wide-ranging collection of contemporary and historical legal materials, mainly from the US, including constitutions; statutes and legislative histories, treaties, judicial opinions, regulations and other administrative law, and topical collections of historical law/policy documents. Contains more than 2,500 law reviews and law-related periodicals. Subjects covered include jurisprudence, political science, technology, human rights, and more. Coverage for all journals is from inception (as JSTOR does for scholarly journals); about 90% of journals are available through the current issue or volume.

Philosopher's Index from EBSCOhost
The Philosopher's Index indexes citations and abstracts from journal articles, books, chapters/essays, book reviews in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, metaphysics, social philosophy, and axiology. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1940-present.
Religion & Philosophy Collection from EBSCOhost
- This link opens in a new window
Religion and Philosophy Collection indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journal articles, magazines, and book reviews in the field of world religions, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Full-text materials are available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1967-present.
MLA International Bibliography with Full Text from ESBCOhost
- This link opens in a new window
MLA International Bibliography indexes citations and full text of journal articles, books, dissertations, and scholarly web sites in disciplines such as language, literature, folklore, linguistics, literary theory and criticism, and the dramatic arts. Coverage includes literature from all over the world and includes citations to materials in many languages other than English. 1926-present.

Open Access Digital Theological Library (OADTL)
- This link opens in a new window
Despite its formal name, the scope of OADTL is not limited to religious studies: its coverage is wide ranging, taking in the range of topics addressed by the world's religious traditions as well as those of interest to clergy as teachers, counselors, and activists. OADTL brings together freely available articles, books, government reports, working papers and the like, using the familiar OCLC WorldCat Discovery platform

Temporary, trial access only -- use while you can

Tech's University Libraries seek user input about possible purchases of online resources; October, February, and April are the primary trial months. Let us know how (if...) a trial fits the research, teaching/learning, and public service missions of the university. Share your judgments through the short survey linked to each trial blurb and/or more detailed remarks in an email to a subject librarians.

All active trials are listed in a sidebar on the Databases A-Z guide, usually including their expiration dates and links to online user evaluation surveys. Here I list current trials of likely interest to the departments I serve.

Policy Commons
This database is on trial through October 31, 2021. Policy Commons is a one-stop community platform for objective, fact-based research with more than 25 million pages of curated, high quality policy reports, briefs, analyses, working papers, and datasets from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. Please provide feedback on this database.
Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method
This database is on trial through October 31, 2021. Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method is the first digital resource dedicated to the theory, methods and historiography which underpin History as a discipline. Please provide feedback on this database.

The content is global in scope and has been written by expert scholars from around the world with students in mind. It brings together a wealth of newly commissioned, exclusive content, including a four-volume Critical and Primary Source set on the global history of historiography from antiquity to the present day and 100 exclusively commissioned articles. These cover a variety of subjects and are divided into five sections, each reflecting a different key area of study within the typical historiography curriculum. The resource also offers an excellent backlist of 61 e-Books dedicated to theory, method and historiography. Browse the interactive World Map and the Timeline about Key Thinkers and Key Events, and read the Featured Content.
Statista
This database is on trial through December 19, 2021. Statista combines market research and analysis, content and information design, ecommerce, global consumer surveys, and digital and consumer market outlooks, consolidating statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and makes it available on four platforms: German, English, French and Spanish. Please provide feedback on this database.
Coronavirus Research Database from ProQuest
The Coronavirus Research Database indexes citations and abstracts of articles from journals, preprints, conference proceedings, dissertations, and more related to COVID-19 and other coronaviruses including MERS and SARS outbreaks. 1970s-present.

Social Sciences & History Librarian

Bruce Pencek

Email Me

Contact:

Newman Library (MC 0434)
Office #3050
560 Drillfield Dr
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email is the best way to contact me with questions or appointment requests.

Office hours (walk-in and/or Zoom): T-W 1-3:00 pm, Th 2-4:00 pm (Eastern time), and by appointment.
- virginiatech.zoom.us/j/95623507981

(540) 231-2140

Subjects: Humanities and performing arts, Social sciences and education

Ask a Librarian

Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.