All Research Guides

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.

Other international studies guides:

African Studies
Canadian Studies
Country Guides (available for some countries)
East Asian Studies
European Union

Starting Your Research

Yearbooks can help you 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 Regional yearbooks provide detailed information on the recent history of each world country.
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]

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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
Index to research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

Web of Science

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.
UO WorldCat UO Libraries, Summit, and WorldCat in a single 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.
UN Member States: On the Record.
Search for individual countries in multiple UN databases. Contents include major speeches, resolutions sponsored, and country reports on performance under various human rights conventions.
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:foreign governments (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.
UNdata 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. [REF Foreign Countries section]. The current issue of the official statistical yearbooks for many countries are in this section.

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News and analysis

Lexis-Nexis: Academic
Lexis-Nexis: Academic includes the full text of many international newspapers. Click on "News" tab, then select "Major World Newspapers" or "Non-US Newspapers and Wires".
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.
Country profiles (from BBC and other sources). Start with Lexis-Nexis Academic --> Business tab --> Country profiles. From search page: select country from menu; select a source such as BBC or PRS from "sources" menu; select date range; click on "Search".
News Sources.
Elizabethtown College's links to international newspapers on the web.
International newspapers online

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Organizations and other 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.
IGO Search. Search the websites of over 3000 intergovernmental organizations.
Think Tank Directory of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Search or browse by country.
Think tanks: NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks; list by country.
"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.
Worldwide NGO Directory.
Nongovernmental Organizations. Search the websites of over 1000 international NGOs.
ELDIS Google Development Websearch. Search 4000 development-focused websites.
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.

Maintained by: Tom Stave, tstave@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 11/17/2009