This guide focuses on principal research resources in a subfield of political science. It is supplements the main subject guide for political science and international studies. The Other political science research guides tab is a menu that connects you to related research guides for the major subfields of the discipline and for related programs in the VT School of Public & International Affairs.
Resources listed on this page are clustered into Research starters; Background information sources; Key databases for accessing scholarly literature, Contact information for the subject librarian; and access to Additional information.
Parts of this guide are also available in related subject guides:Social data sources, News/journalism/streaming media, and Advice for searching/citing/engaging with related scholarly literatures.
Archived 45-minute webcasts provide overviews for exploring publicly available information from US intelligence agencies. Presenter is Albert Chapman (Purdue University Library). Offered in 2018 as part of the US Government Publishing Office's "FDLP Academy" training sessions for librarians (but not geeky)
All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:
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 are sent to the mailing address listed on your account.
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.