Political Research: a Guide to Literature and Sources Mamtimyn Sunuodula

What Do I learn? Critical evaluation of academic literature and sources Types of literature and their usage Sources for secondary academic research Sources for primary literature How to manage: Referencing and bibliographic management

Project themes Trust in International Relations Participation and British Politics Communitarianism and Political Theory Social and Intellectual History of Political Thought Territorialisation of the South China Sea International Political Economy

Project TitleStructure Introduction: Issue, Key concepts and definitions, significance Literature Review: What the others wrote said and what might be missing/wrong/weakness Methods and methodological discussion: quantitative vs. qualitative, etc. Data and data analysis: specific issues, threads, common themes, evidence Discussion: Scope, qualification, issues for further research, etc. ConclusionBibliography

Communitarianism and Political Theory Communitarianism Secondary Sources: Concepts, people, period Primary Sources: Events and Phenomena Political theory Secondary Sources: Concepts and academic analysis Primary Sources: Original historical sources; contemporary Politics events

Peer- Review Process Publisher Author credentials and expertise Intended Audience Evaluating Academic Literature

Begin Reference works: Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias, Handbooks Books End Journal Articles Reverse Pyramid of Academic Sources

∂ Reference Sources (short review essays, definitions, etc.) Some online references: Credo Reference Blackwell Reference Online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford Islamic Studies Online Encyclopaedia of Islam

∂ Books Use the Library Catalogue: / / All material held in Durham University Libraries Author, title, keyword, subject searching Reserve, recall, renew items in Library Includes theses, e-books (Past Masters series, Oxford Scholarship Online Politics collection)

Searching Tips Adding * to the end of a word finds all the variants beginning with that word, e.g. politic* = political, politics, politicians, etc. Phrase search with double quotation marks, e.g. “political theory” Variant spelling can be found by replacing the varying letter with ? mark, e.g. organi?ation = organization, organisation

Primary Sources News and current affairs, newspaper archives Statistics and datasets Professional and trade magazines, agency reports Political posters, physical symbols, films, social media Popular magazines, etc. Primary Source Literature

News, Current Affairs, Newspapers, Magazines and Newswires Nexis UK is an aggregated collection of newspapers, magazines, newswires and broadcasts (including BBC Monitoring Online) from around world. It is mainly in English and covers archives of newspapers going back up 30 years. Nexis UK

FactivaFactiva factiva is similar to Nexis UK, but the coverage includes publications in more than 25 languages (including Russian, Chinese, Japanese and many others)

Statistical Data Economic and social data service (ESDS) Vast array of national and international statistics, including British Social Attitude Survey and UN data Economic and social data service (ESDS) EIU Country Reports Contains monthly review and forecasts of political, social and economic developments around world country by country EIU Country Reports

Historical Sources Pre-20 th Century Books Online o Early English Books Online Early English Books Online o Eighteenth Century Collections Online Eighteenth Century Collections Online o Nineteenth century collections online Nineteenth century collections online 19 th Century British Newspapers 19 th Century British Newspapers Economist, Times Digital Archives EconomistTimes Digital Archives State Papers Online House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online

∂ Other sources for e-books: Google BooksGoogle Books

∂ Other sources for academic sources: Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

Google Scholar By far the largest source of reference Many in full-text, includes dissertations Settings can be configured to display link to Durham University from the references and export references to EndNote Citation counts are displayed which can be an indication of impact Everything in one place and difficult to differentiate

Document Delivery Service This service can be used when the required material are not held in Durham Journal articles are normally delivered electronically to desktop Books can take about a week to arrive and still quicker than purchasing and processing a new book for the Library There is normally a charge for this service

Reference Management Gather and Store Information Retrieve and use information for citation and references

Reference Management Tools EndNote (Networked PC Service) EndNote Web (via Web of Knowledge) Zotero (free web based reference management software) Mendeley

Summing up… Identify concepts and terms Critical awareness of sources Define the concepts and terms Identify existing academic literature Critically evaluate and identify gaps Gather data and evidence Manage the information

Any questions? Next Week… – Practical Workshop in Bill Bryson Library

∂ Getting help Library web pages: