Research paper (PSC 297-Weiss) Spring 2024

Hello Dr. Weiss's students! I'm Susan Gregg, an Instruction and Reference Librarian at CSN. I'm based on the NLV campus and you can find me there at the Reference Desk or in the Online Chat Room. Please see the CSN Library Hours page for open hours for each campus and the online library help hours.  I've listed some of the library resources that will work best for your research. I will be able to help you navigate the library's website and find credible information from books and ebooks, films, and articles from databases. I'll also explain how to use the tools found in databases so that you can limit results, print the articles, and get a formatted citation.

If you have any questions about using library resources, please come to campus or email your question (please allow 24 hours for email responses during the week and 48 hours on the weekend). If you need help quickly you can use our Online Chat service to talk to a librarian..

If you need help with organizing or writing your paper please call or visit a CAS location on campus. The link is available in the menu in your Canvas Course.

Be mindful of the due dates your instructor has laid out. Research takes a lot of time and you should plan accordingly. Good luck on your research assignment and don't hesitate to contact me if you need help.

Here is a list of the best Political Science databases.  If you're working off campus you'll have to log into the library as you click on a database or electronic resource. Use your Canvas login and password. A database is a collection of records that links to books, articles and films. You can search all the databases at one time by using the large search box on the home page. Or you can go to an individual database that specializes in a particular subject area. All databases have tools to print pages, email articles, or get formatted citations. Most databases provide APA, MLA, and Chicago style citations, although some don't have the latest edition.

Use A-Z the World to get up to date general information on countries around the world. You can click on the country name and then click the Human Rights tab to access the "Human Rights Report ".

Use CQ Researcher to find in-depth reports on current and controversial issues. Search for your topic in the upper right-hand corner.

Use Las Vegas/Nevada News (Newsbank) for local and national newspapers. Click on Hot Topics, Civics, Government, & Politics for trending topics.

Use ProQuest and EBSCOhost  to find scholarly articles along with newspaper and magazine articles. Enter your search terms and click on the full-text box. Click on Peer reviewed to retrieve scholarly articles.

In these databases  you can use advanced search to build your search phrase. Look at the "details" or abstract of an article to find official subject headings or "tags" for that article, then use them in the advanced search option to find other resources that are relevant. 

How to start searching from the CSN Library homepage:

Enter search terms related to your topic in the large search box on the homepage to see what kinds of resources you might find. There may be books, articles, or films in the list coming from several different databases. In this search you can use long phrases and keywords; use advanced search to separate keywords with connecting words such as "and" "or" "not". Use keywords from your topic such as "United Nations" and "international conflicts".  You may have to try out different keywords to find the information you need and conduct many searches for various aspects of your topic.

Use the Find Books button to look for print books to check out in the library and e-books to access from home. Use the filters on the left hand side to limit by print (available in the library) or ebooks (full text online). You can also limit by campus or publication date. Find Articles and Find Films work the same way. The results come from several different databases and you can use the filters on the left-hand side for publication date and scholarly articles. 

For information on citing sources consult our Cite Your Sources page for a tutorial on citing. There are also links to the CSN Library/CAS citation style guides. These guides show example citations for all kinds of resources. The library recommends the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University for in-depth information on citing and various types of writing such as your Literature Review. 

What's the difference between popular and scholarly articles? and How do I evaluate a website? are some FAQs that will help you understand what type of information you are finding and how to make sure the information is credible when searching the Internet. For articles that we don't have in full text you can request it through InterLibrary Loan.

There are so many search tips I can give you when you contact me-I just can't list them all here so reach out to me if you need any help.