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Political Science

Guide to resources and research strategies in Political Science.

Workshop Materials

Search Terms

  • Your first set of search terms are main concepts in your research question/topic. 
    • Use &, OR, NOT to connect your keywords, enclose exact phrases in “  “.
  • Start with a broad & simple search, then refine as you find relevant resources.

Experiment 

  • Try searching with synonyms or related terms. This may include broader terms, narrower terms, and antonyms, i.e. “clean air” OR pollution.
  • As you review search results, examine the titles and abstracts for alternative search terms, phrases & subject headings. Subject headings are standardized terms assigned to articles and books using the Library of Congress subject headings, or database specific subject headings.

Use Database Filters & Functionality

  • Use the database filters to refine & narrow your search results.

You will likely go through the search process a number of times, performing different searches with different keyword combinations, to address the different components of your literature review. 

Systematic Searching Handsearching
#1 Identify your question. Identify the key concepts and related terms. Tip:  You may want to re-phrase your question. Background reading can help you identify related terms and further define or narrow your topic.  Explore reference lists to locate other articles, books, or authors who have written on the same topic. 
#2 Find an appropriate search tool. Consider your subject matter, discipline of study, type of information needed (e.g. peer reviewed articles) Locate cited by literature to view more recent similar or adjacent research.

#3 Start with a simple search based on your key concepts. Tip: You may also have to look at literature that refers to one (not all) aspects of your research question.

 Browse the table of contents of relevant journals and special issues.

#4 Use specific search strategies.

  • Use AND to join dissimilar terms.
  • Use OR to join synonyms or related terms.
  • Truncate words with * to pick up variations of that word. 
  • Use "quotation marks" for phrase searching. 
  • Use database limiters e.g. limit to scholarly journals. 
  • Consider searching in a specific field e.g. title (article title) or source (journal title.)
 Locate an expert in the field and browse their publications.  
#5 Search and skim results. Look for the language and terms that researchers use and that the database assigns to articles; identify and search or refine your results using subject headings.  
#6 Switch up your searches.  Use promising new terminology.  Your search may become more sophisticated.  

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators, AND, OR, and NOT, are used to combine your keywords. 

AND is used to connect different concepts: food production AND "social justice"

Using AND will narrow your search, because the database is searching for sources that contain all the keywords.

 

OR is used to connect similar concepts: food production OR farming OR agriculture

Using OR to connect similar words will broaden your search, because the database is searching for sources that contain at least one of the keywords.

 

NOT will remove any search results that contain a particular keyword: food production NOT "landscaping" 

Using NOT will decrease the number of search results, or narrow our search, because the database will exclude resources with the specified keyword(s) from the results list. 

Phrase Searching

Enclose your keywords in quotation marks to search for an exact phrase: :"food justice" OR "food sovereignty"

quotation marks

 

Truncation

Truncation allows you to account for words with variations.

asterisk

The asterisk(*) is commonly used to truncate a keyword. Place the * where you would like to account for variation: 

         activis* will retrieve: activism, activist, activists

Literature Reviews

A literature review may refer to part of a paper/article or a stand-alone publication that discusses the state of knowledge in a specific area, (as well as the act of searching and locating research literature.)

"...one of the first steps in planning a research project is to do a literature review: that is, to trawl through all the available information sources to track down the latest knowledge, and to assess it for relevance, quality, controversy and gaps. 

The review can be used to show where you have gained inspiration to develop your ideas...it should also demonstrate you have a good understanding of the current conceptual frameworks in your subject, and that you can take a stance in placing your work within these."

A successful literature review will present:

    History of developments in research related to your topic:
    1. trace the background to current thinking
    2. what are the themes, issues, or sub-topics scholars have focused on?
  2. Research theory & philosophy:
    1. establish the intellectual context(s) of your related question(s)  
  3. Latest research and developments in order to:
    1. inform and practice
    2. discuss conflicting arguments
    3. detect the gap(s) in knowledge
  4. Research methods:
    1. explore research techniques that have been used, particularly those of relevance to your project
    2. what are the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques?
  5. Your research question/ hypothesis: 
    1. how has the existing research led to/ informed the development of your research project?

Adapted from Walliman, Nicholas. 2018. Research Methods : the Basics. Second edition. Abingdon, Oxon.

What Makes a Successful Literature Review?

  1. Search terms: Formulate appropriate search terms as the basis for your literature searches.
  2. Database search tools: Use database search tools to identify relevant journal articles and related materials.
  3. Key publications: Identify a series of key publications in your area and use these as the bases for citation reference searches.
  4. Additional search tools: Use search tools to identify pieces of interest, in particular grey literature, relevant to you (e.g. Google Scholar.)
  5. Scanning: Scan abstracts of articles, reviews of books, executive summaries of government reports, and other summaries of published work to determine if you need to read the piece in full.
  6. Reading: Read the pieces you have identified and make notes from them. A synthesis grid may be useful for note taking and for facilitating writing the review.
  7. Thematic organization: Use these notes as the basis of a thematic organization of your literature review.
    • Note, a chronological or methodological organization may align better with your research question.
  8. Writing the review: Write the review, based on your organizational framework, in such a way that you can construct one or more interesting research questions which you will address in your investigation.

From Byrne, D. (2017). What makes a successful literature review?. Project Planner. 10.4135/9781526408518.

A literature review is organized around ideas and discusses how sources relate to one another around these ideas; a literature review is not a series of source summaries. 1

Be it your first or 20th review, visit the Vassar Writing Center for support.

Scoping Your Review 2,3
Take time to scope your topic; you will want a narrow enough topic so that the amount of literature can be digested into a review, however you will also need enough literature to place your work into the conversation started by the existing research.

As you read, consider what themes emerge across sources, note consensus, debate, tension or patterns. You will not go into depth regarding every theme, but focus on the major ones central to your work.

Structuring & Organizing Your Review 2

  1. Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational pattern.
  2. Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see UNC Tools & Tricks for details re: selecting organizational structure.)
  3. Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed?

Synthesis 1
The goal of the review is to synthesize, to make observations about groups of studies. Synthesis may sound like:

  • Much of the literature on [topic x] focuses on [major themes].
  • In recent years, researchers have begun investigating [facets a, b, and c] of [topic x].
  • The studies in this review of [topic x] confirm / suggest / call into question / support [idea / practice / finding / method / theory / guideline y].
  • In the reviewed studies [variable x] was generally associated with higher / lower rates of [outcome y].
  • A limitation of some / most / all of these studies is [y].

Resources
1 Literature Review Overview, JMU Writing Center: literature review structure and examples of source synthesis.
2 Literature Review Tips & Tools, UNC Writing Center: how to get started, focus your question/topic, fantastic guidance for organizing and composing your review.
3 Literature Review, JMU Writing Center: series of questions to potentially address in your review re: project's significance, coverage, state of knowledge, and methods. 
Writing a literature review. Charles Darwin University: source for the graphic above; excellent guidance for everything literature review related.

Use the following evaluation criteria to evaluate your work.

Evaluating Introductions & Literature Reviews

☑ Does the researcher identify a specific problem area?
☑ Does the researcher establish the importance of the problem area?
☑ Are any underlying theories adequately described?
☑ Did the researcher cite sources for "actual statements of facts"?
☑ Has the researcher noted gaps in the literature? 
☑ Does a clear picture emerge of what previous research has accomplished and which questions remain unsolved? 

A Closer Look at Literature Reviews

☑ Does the researcher move from topic to topic instead of from citation to citation?
☑ Does the literature review critically engage with sources instead of summarize?
☑ Has the researcher avoided citing a large number of sources for a single point?
☑ Has the researcher avoided overuse of direct quotations? 
☑ Is current research cited?
☑ Has the researcher distinguished between opinions and research findings? 
☑ Has the researcher interpreted results in light of the inherent limits of empirical research? 
☑ Has the researcher cited both converging and contradictory research findings?

Checklist modified from Pyrczak, F., & Tcherni-Buzzeo, M. (2019). Evaluating research in academic journals : a practical guide to realistic evaluation. (Seventh edition.). Routledge.