Welcome to the Harvard Library

This guide provides links to resources and services relevant to SSCI S-495, taught by Dr. Chase Harrison.  If you have library or research related questions, we would be happy to hear from you.

Resources for Background, Literature Reviews & Research Methods

  • Oxford Bibliographies Online is a series of selective online guides to the essential literature in subjects in the humanities and social sciences. You might also want to explore. After a search across all volumes of the series, you can select to view only those results in relevant disciplines such as, political science or international relations.
  • Annual Reviews offers comprehensive collections of critical reviews written by leading scholars. You can also search across disciplines in this resource and then narrow to relevant disciplines law and social sciences or political science.
  • Sage Research Methods is a research methods tool providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. It contains a methods library with more than 1000 books, journal articles, and instructional videos by academics from across the social sciences. 

Finding Scholarly Sources

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global indexes dissertations and masters' theses from most North American graduate schools as well as some European universities. Provides full text for most indexed dissertations from 1990-present.
  • Proquest Social Sciences Premium is a scholarly database including coverage of politics, sociology, anthropology, and education.


Citation Searching - These databases are two of the best for doing citation searching. Most databases will enable you to see the works cited by a particular work. These databases enable you to find how many times a particular work has been cited and by whom it has been cited since its publication.

  • Web of Science (Citation Indexes) is a multidisciplinary database indexing major journals in the Sciences, Social Sciences and the Humanities.
  • Google Scholar enables you to search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, and abstracts from all broad areas of research,


GOVERNMENT & HISTORY

  • America: History & Life covers over 2,000 journals publishing the scholarly literature on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Historical Abstracts covers over 1800 journals publishing the history of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the U.S. and Canada.
  • ProQuest Congressional is a major source of information about the members of Congress and their legislative activities and a primary resource for accessing the many publications of Congress.
  • HeinOnline is a digital collection of legal materials inlcuding law journals and congressional and other government materials.

Harvard Library Research Guides

A collection of research guides created and maintained by librarians across the University to provide assistance with finding library materials, searching electronic and print collections, citing sources and more. Below is a selection of government and data research guides.

Finding Books

  • HOLLIS is the Library's main search tool. It includes the Harvard library catalog as well as a huge (and more heterogeneous) collection of citations for a variety of materials, including articles and book chapters. The online content students can surface there is substantial. See the HOLLIS User Guide for more information.

Policy Resources

  • PolicyFile allows users to access timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities. Coverage is from 1990-present.
  • CRS (Congressional Research Service) Reports often provide analysis of key federal statutes or significant legislative proposals under consideration by Congress. The CRS works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. 
  • Think Tank Search searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses.

Helpful Services & Tools