There is a huge amount of information on the Internet but the quality is variable. Some reliable sources are suggested below.
See also the tips and suggestions to help you evaluate what's good and what's not!
Subject portals
This guide cannot - and does not aim to - provide an exhaustive list of websites for researching politics and international relations. To identify and access more sites of potential value, the resource listings in the specialist portals below are a good place to start.
The University of Bristol Special Collections holds the largest and longest established collection of election addresses (over 30,000) and campaign literature from all British Parliamentary Elections since 1892. They also hold leaflets from the European Elections, along with campaign literature from other important national plebiscites such as the 1975 and 2016 referendums on membership of the European Union. This material is available for consultation by students, researchers, journalists, and members of the public.
Downloadable data on European national and EU elections since 1990, enabling comparative analysis.
** currently unavailable - provider hopes to restore later this year**
This American government site offers information on commercial and economic affairs, overseas opportunities and links to other sites. Particularly useful are the Background Notes which include detailed information on countries, including country's history, political conditions, economy and relations with other country.
Google Scholar is the academic version of Google. It allows you to search for scholarly literature (journal articles, books, patents) from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, professional societies, and online repositories.
It is unclear which publishers are included in Google Scholar, so it shouldn't be used as your only source for a comprehensive literature search. For references to reliable, academic sources search our Summon discovery service or databases covering your subject.
Link to our full-text You can set your preferences on Google Scholar to show links to full-text articles in all of our e-journals.
1) Click on the three lines on the top left of the home screen. 2) Select 'Settings'. 3) Select 'Library Links' on the left of the screen. 4) In the search box type 'Reading' and select the 'Reading University Library - Full-Text @ Reading' option. 5) Save your settings.
When you do a search, look for a 'Full-Text @ Reading' link to the right of references in your results list. This indicates that we have a subscription which will give you access to the article. Click on this link to access the full-text.
If the 'Full-text @ Reading' link does not appear next to a reference it indicates that it isn't covered by our subscriptions and you probably won't be able to access the article.
If you are off-campus you will need to login to access the articles. You will usually be prompted to login as soon as you click on the link to the article. If this doesn't happen you will need to look for an institutional or Shibboleth login link once you reach the journal's website. For more guidance see Accessing e-journals.
Google Scholar Button Google have produced a plugin for Chrome, Firefox and Safari which allows you to easily search for and cite articles. Highlight the title of an article in the page you are reading and then click the Scholar button and it will search for the article on Google Scholar in a pop up window. To get a formatted reference for a search result press the quote button next to it and the reference will appear in three different styles.
To make the most of this tool set up the University of Reading as a 'Library Link' using the instructions above.
