Political Science 330 Public Policy Analysis: Articles

Where should you look for articles?

If you're unsure where to start, ask your professor for help choosing databases appropriate for your topic, or try these options:

Choose databases based on your program. If it has to do with schools, add education databases. If it has to do with businesses, add business databases. Some databases cover a variety of subject areas, while others are more specialized. The Databases by Subject list may help, and/or ask a reference librarian or your instructor. For a complete list of databases, see the Alphabetical List of Databases.

Recommended for most political science research topics:

See all of the databases tagged for Political Science.

Useful depending on the research topic:

Historical topics

See databases tagged for History, and the library guide on Historical Newspaper Research.

Legal topics (law review articles)

See databases tagged for Law.

Most databases have some full text articles and/or chapters in addition to citations. To access the full text there will be a button or text to click on that says something like: PDF, HTML, or Full Text.

When an article is not available in that database, use  button/link to determine whether and where the UWW libraries have it. One of several things will happen when you click on it.

1. You will be taken to a "LibKey" screen with one or more Full Text Format Options on the right side. Select Article Link to go to a database that does have the full text.
2. You will be taken to Research@UWW. To see whether an article, chapter, book, video, etc. is available look in the:
   1. View Online section to see if there is a link to the item in one of the libraries' subscription databases.
   2. Get It section to see if there are other ways to access the full text of the article.

If you have a citation for something UWW does not have access to AND are not in a database or Research@UWW, use the Journals Search (also on the libraries' homepage) to determine whether and where the Library has a particular periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper, etc.). If:

UW-Whitewater has it, click on the link provided to the periodical and then search the periodical for it. UW-Whitewater does NOT have it, go to the library homepage, select My Accounts, and Logon to ILLiad, then fill out the request form.

In the Get It section you will see other ways to access the full text of the article. Either:

UW-Whitewater has the item physically in one of the UWW libraries. If at your campus, you will go to the listed collection to get it. If at the other campus, use the "Request" option to have it sent to your campus. Some people who fit this set of criteria can use ILLiad to have articles or book chapters scanned as a PDFs for you to access online. UW-Whitewater does NOT have the needed item in one of the UWW libraries. Select Please sign in for more request options --> Sign in. Select UW-W Students / Staff Login >, and then Log in. Complete the multifactor authentication through Duo. Click on the We Can Get it for You (Document Delivery/ILLiad) for articles and chapters or UW-Request for books, media, government and other items.

How? Check out the How to Use Find It and the Journals Search guide or watch this How to Use Find It video