LibGuides: POLS 237: State and Local Politics (Schaal): Researching the state

Articles

Articles can help with many areas of your research. You can use them to help learn more about policy issues and how policy develops in your state and in other states. They can also inform you about a state's culture and history as well as help you identify special interest groups.

Access World News
Contains local papers and includes editorials.
Description: Articles from 1,000's of newspapers around the world. Provides full text access to many local and regional newspapers in the U.S. Also contains magazine articles, transcripts, videos, and other sources.
Time Period: 1977 to present
Sources: Contains articles from 3,200 sources including newspapers, blogs, and magazines.
Subject Headings: General, News
Primary Materials: Audio, Citations, Magazine Articles, News, Reviews, Trade Publications, Transcripts, Videos
Academic Search Complete
This databases covers many disciplines including political science. Will work for background on policies which may need reform. Includes features such as "times cited in this database" and "sources cited." Both of these features can help you find other relevant articles.
Description: Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text and peer reviewed articles.
Time Period: 1909 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 20,000 Academic and peer reviewed journals and magazines and provides full text for more than 5,700.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Images, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Reviews
JSTOR
Includes the full text of many important Political Science journals. Also covers many disciplines.
Description: JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.

Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.

Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Provides the full text for approximately 2,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Mobile, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews
PAIS International
Indexes many Political Science Journals and covers public policy.
Description: Key database for the field of political science and public policy issues. Includes PAIS Archives 1914-1976.
Time Period: 1914 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 3,800 journals.
Subject Headings: History, Law, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences (Political Science)
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Nexis Uni
Good for law review articles related to policy and newspaper articles from larger newspapers. To find law review articles use the Guided Search below the main search box. Click on Law Reviews and enter your search terms and press the blue search button. To find news leave it set to "News."
Description: Nexis Uni provides access to newspaper articles, magazine articles, and transcripts. It is also a key database for business and legal research, containing company reports, law journals, and statutes and cases from all 50 states. Also contains legal resources for Canada and the EU.
Time Period: 18th century to present
Sources: Searches more than 15,000 sources.
Subject Headings: Business, General, Law, News, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Journal Articles, Legal Materials, Magazine Articles, News, Reference Resources, Report, Transcripts
OneSearch
Find books and articles about your state, including its culture, history, economy, geography, topography, and reforms. You can limit your results to books and articles using the Content Type facets in the left column your search results list.
Description: OneSearch is a tool that cross searches much of the content our databases and other online sources. You can search across many collections in one search box simplifying the resource discovery process.
Time Period: 1600 to Present
Sources:
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Government Documents, Journal Articles, Books

Government structure

Book of the States
Contains information about each state's constitution and branches of government including information about the amendment process, makeup of the legislature, gubernatorial powers, and selection of judges. Also included are brief articles about selected state policies and programs.
State Governments
Sometimes a state's website will provide information about the structure of its government and the powers of each branch. If not, there likely will be a link to the state constitution, which will tell you about the structure of the government.

Sociodemographics

Quick Facts
Find demographic data from U.S. Census for states, counties, cities, towns, and zip codes.
Explore Census Data
Create custom tables for information about the U.S., its states, counties, and smaller geographies such as counties. Create a topic query using the advanced search. Use the menu in the left column of the advanced search to select a topic, then a geography, and click on Search in the lower right corner of the screen.

Culture and history

America: History & Life with Full Text
A primary American history database. You might combine your state name with words like "political culture" or "conservative" or "liberal" or "culture."
Description: Key database for research in American and Canadian history. Indexes journals from the 1914 to the present, containing articles on all eras of American history.
Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,500 academic journals with the full text of more than 180 titles.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, History, Humanities, Mobile, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Books/e-books, Citations, Conference Papers, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles
Number of Simultaneous Users: 6

Interest groups and issues

Vote Smart
Select a state and an issue to identify what special interest group organizations are located in a given state.
Open Secrets-- Interest Groups
Select a sector or select an interest group in the left column for information about the amount contributed by special interest organizations annually. Also see top recipients of donations for each sector.