Political Science Research Guide

Gathering background information is an important step for any topic you're studying in your Political Science course. This is called pre-research. 

Pre-research will provide you with a good understanding of a broad topic so you can identify keywords, narrow down the topic, and form a thesis statement or research question. It will also help you determine if enough information exists on your topic for you to be able to research it.

For example, the topic of International Relations is very broad. You may choose to focus on something much more specific like cybersecurity or humanitarian assistance.

• A database like Credo Reference can help you get started with background research and identifying keywords. Use the search box at the left to use their Mind Map tool.
• Try one of the eBooks listed below for background research on a broad topic, or search the library catalog.
• Google can be a good tool -- you’re just looking for ideas and inspiration at this point, not sources.
• As you do your pre-research, be sure to take notes! Seeing your keywords written down can help you make connections between keywords and ideas, which may then help you form a thesis statement and identify supporting arguments or evidence.

Online reference books (eBooks) are helpful for finding background information because they contain a lot of information about your topic all in one place. eBooks can be found in our library databases and are available at any time without a library card. Here are just a few of our eBook databases to get you started.

For more eBooks, please visit our A to Z Databases and sort the database Types by eBooks.