Research Guides: Social Sciences: Political Science

Political Science

Recommended Databases

In addition to the general social science databases listed on this guide's home page, the following databases may be helpful for Political Sciences research:

Congressional Research Service Reports
Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events.
CQ Press Electronic Library
Access to the CQ Researcher with reports covering current controversial topics from the news; and CQ Weekly with coverage of U.S. Congressional bills, votes, committees, etc.
FBI Records: The Vault
FBI reports requested under the Freedom of Information Act that have been in the news or are frequently requested. The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing 6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies
ICPSR Data Holdings
FAQs and Help.
Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
Social Explorer
Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to historical census data and demographic information. It creates fast, intuitive, and appealing maps and reports to help users visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history. An invaluable repository of information, the site currently includes the entire US Census history from 1790 to 2000, all annual updates from the American Community Survey, and the Religious Congregations and Membership Study from 1980 to 2000. More than a just data source, Social Explorer offers a high level of functionality and control. Users can customize, save, print, and email maps and reports and export them to a variety of programs and statistical packages for further analysis and use in reports and presentations. The site is updated three times annually with new data - the 2010 US Census will be available shortly after its release - and new features will be continually added. A full and complete reference of historical census data, Social Explorer is an end-to-end solution that meets the needs of researchers and scholars without sacrificing ease of use for non-experts.

Recommended Resources

Campaign Finance Data
See how candidates and committees raise and spend money in federal elections. This financial data helps voters make informed decisions.
Census Reporter
Census Reporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easier for journalists to write stories using information from the U.S. Census bureau. Place profiles and comparison pages provide a friendly interface for navigating data, including visualizations for a more useful first look.
Every CRS Report
EveryCRSReport.com is a project of Demand Progress in collaboration with the Congressional Data Coalition — a bipartisan coalition founded by Demand Progress and the R Street Institute to promote open legislative information.
GovInfo
GovInfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
Harvard Dataverse
Harvard's multidisciplinary data repository.
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.