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International Studies

The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in International Studies. While the emphasis of this guide is on international development, the resources may be of use for many topics. For further assistance, contact Tom Stave at tstave@uoregon.edu.

Starting Your Research

These sources can help you identify a topic for your research. Some provide an overview of a specific issue and suggest other materials which might be useful for your research. Others help you to notice a topic that might be of interest to you.

• Subject Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
  Subject dictionaries can help you understand terminology, get acquainted with unfamiliar topics, and clarify concepts:
  • Historical Dictionaries of International Organizations Series
  • International Development Dictionary. Gerald W. Fry and Galen R. Martin. [DOCS REF HF1359.F79]
• Yearbooks
  Use yearbooks to identify recent events and trends, and current information on individual countries.
  • Britannica Book of the Year. [REF AE5.E364] See the "World Affairs" and "World Data" sections for current country data.
  • Europa World Year Book [REF D2.E8]
    Regional yearbooks provide fuller information on the recent history of each country:
    • Africa South of the Sahara. [REF DT351.A37]
    • Central and South-eastern Europe. [REF HC244.A1C46]
    • Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. [REF HC244.A1E293]
    • Far East and Australasia. [REF DS1.F3]
    • Middle East and North Africa. [REF DS49.M5]
    • South America, Central America and the Caribbean. [REF F1414.2.S68]
    • USA and Canada. [REF E838.U83]
    • Western Europe. [REF D1050.W43]
  • European Yearbook. [DOCS REF JX1995.A5] Accounts of the year's activities of major European IGOs.
  • Human Development Report. UN Development Programme. [DOCS REF HD72.H85]
  • SIPRI Yearbook: World Armaments and Disarmament. [REF UA10.S69a]
  • Statesman's Yearbook: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World. [REF JA51.S7]
    
  • World Development Report. World Bank. [DOCS REF HC59.7.W659] Annual issues with rotating themes, such as poverty. Includes: "Selected World Development Indicators".
  • World Factbook (CIA). Current data on each world country, updated annually.
  • Yearbook of the United Nations. [DOCS REF JX1977.A37Y4]

• Directories. Use directories to identify relevant international organizations (IOs) or inter-governmental organizations (IGOs).
  • Yearbook of International Organizations. [REF, DOCS REF JX1904.A42]
  • NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks.
    Search for think tanks by country or keyword.

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Finding Articles

To look for articles in journals, newspapers, or magazines, you will need to start with an index. An index will allow you to look by subject or a few keywords which describe your topic or by author.

• Academic Search Premier
  Interdisciplinary database with indexing for more than 8,000 periodicals, including full text for articles in 4,500 journals.
• Alternative Press Index
  Articles in over 200 alternative domestic and international publications dealing with cultural, economic, political & social change.
  
• Anthropological Literature
  Indexes articles and essays in all areas of anthropology and archaeology, from the 19th century to the present.
• Business Source Premier
  Indexing for articles in over 7,000 business-related journals, including full text for over 3000 titles.
• GEOBASE
  Major indexing service for geographic literature, including all the abstracts from International Development Abstracts since 1980.
• Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS).
  References to journal articles, books, proceedings, and government documents in the area of public affairs.
• SocAbstracts
  Sociological Abstracts provides access to the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
• Web of Science.
  Comprehensive index for science and social science articles. Search for words in article titles, by author, or for works that cite a specified author or paper.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.
  Articles in Political Science and related fields, including international relations.

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Finding Books and Government Publications

• UO Library Catalog
  Identify books by topic, title or author; or identify journals and magazines owned by the UO Library. To find books ABOUT an organization or country, use a Subject or Keyword search; to find books BY an organization or by the government of a country, use an Author search.
• Summit Union Catalog
  Quick turnaround loans of books from 35 academic libraries in the Northwest.
• WorldCat
  Access to holdings of 60,000 libraries worldwide. Request items using Interlibrary Loan feature.
  
• UNBISNET United Nations Bibliographic Information System.
  Comprehensive access to documents and speeches of the United Nations and its subordinate bodies, 1979-date. Many are full-text, and others may be found in the Document Center's UN collection.
• Official Documents of the United Nations (ODS).
  ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Resolutions are available from 1946.
• Constitutions of the Countries of the World
• Treaties and International Agreements Online
  
• Legal resources of foreign countries.
  
• DEC: USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse.
  130,000 development documents produced for or by the US Agency for International Development. 25,000 are available full-text; check with Document Center about access to others.

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Statistics

• Lexis-Nexis: Statistical
  Index to published statistics of inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), the U.S. government, and non-governmental organizations.
• Source OECD Statistical databases, periodicals and monographs from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. See the "Statistics:International Development" section for data on external debt and bilateral and multilateral aid.
• Statistical Sources on the Web (University of Michigan)
  Topical lists of links to important statistical internet sites. The Foreign Government Data Sources is especially useful.
• International Statistics--Research Guide (Pennsylvania State University)
  Links to major sources of statistical data on foreign countries.
• Statistical Agencies (International) (Census Bureau) and National Statistical Systems (UN)
  Links to the statistical agencies of most foreign governments and many IGOs.
• International Documents (Northwestern University).
  Links to official websites of foreign governments, many with statistical information.
• International Data Base (IDB)
  U.S. Census Bureau's data bank of demographic and socio-economic data for 227 countries.
• UN Statistical Databases
  Portal to United Nations statistical databases.
• UN Common Database (UNCDB)
  Selected series from numerous specialized international data sources for all available countries and areas.
• Country Environmental Factsheets (compiled by the World Bank from diverse sources).
  
• World Development Indicators. World Bank. 800 development indicators for 152 economies, and basic data for another 55 economies.
• National statistical yearbooks. [DOCS REF Foreign Countries section].
  The current issue of the official statistical yearbooks for many countries are in this section. The United Nations also has a web site for many national statistical yearbooks.

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News and analysis

• Lexis-Nexis: Academic
  Lexis-Nexis: Academic includes the full text of many international newspapers in its "World News" portion.
• Newspaper Source
  This searchable database includes the full text of twenty international newspapers.
• World News Connection
  Compiled by a CIA agency from thousands of non-U.S. print and broadcast media sources. Covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events since 1996.
• Global Insight
  Current and archived economic and political news/analysis for world nations, by London's World Market Research Centre. Select "Country Intelligence".
  
• News Sources.
  Elizabethtown College's links to international newspapers on the web.
• International newspapers online

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Web Resources

• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Oline).
  Foreign affairs-related full-text working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
• ELDIS: Electronic Development and Environment Information System.
  Online documents on development topics from thousands of sources, available via the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the U. of Sussex.
• British Library for Development Studies
  Catalog of the holdings of the library at the Institute for Development Studies.
• "International Studies Resources on the Internet". Elizabethtown College's comprehensive site for international studies, including subject-organized links, and links to IGO and NGO sites and news sources.
• International Organizations links (at Northwestern University): Links to IGOs and official web sites of foreign governments.
• Nongovernmental Organizations (UC-Berkeley Library)
  
• Portals to the World Links to authoritative, in-depth information about the nations of the world, selected by Library of Congress Area Specialists.
• Country domain extensions Use these extensions to restrict a Google (or other search engine) search to sources from a particular country.