This document provides step-by-step instructions for conducting library research for a political science course. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, constructing a search strategy using keywords and synonyms, selecting appropriate research tools like books, articles, and primary sources, running searches and evaluating results, and obtaining full texts and citations. The instructions are illustrated with an example research question on US policy toward China's currency.

1. Library Research Step by Step
For Political Science 144

2. Before you start searching
• The licenses for most of our research tools
require that users are on UCSD IP addresses
– Are you on the wireless network at UCSD?
• Make sure you’re using the UCSD-PROTECTED network.
– Are you off-campus?
• Make sure you’re using the VPN or Proxy

3. Choose your topic and keywords.
• Develop your research question, hypothesis, or thesis statement
– President Barack Obama has asked you to draft a memorandum
outlining the political and economic consequences of pursuing the
strategies outlined in the proposed bill [Currency Exchange Rate
Oversight Reform Act of 2013]. You are to address the question: should
the United States pursue these strategies in their entirety, should it
change strategies to more effectively achieve its goals, or should it
consider not pursuing the policies proposed to counteract the
undervaluation of the Chinese currency?
• Break that statement into key concepts,
– Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2013, Obama
Administration, United States, economic goals, political goals, China,
renminbi, currency manipulation, trade deals, trade war…
• Think of other ways to phrase those concepts. Use synonyms.
Consider more specific words (to narrow your focus) or more
general terms (to expand your search), e.g.
– Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2013: (sponsor)
Sherrod Brown; what’s is bill number? Is there a short name for the
bill?
– Obama Administration: Obama, President, Democrats…
– United States: U.S., America…
– economic goals: priorities; specific goals or priorities…
– political goals:
– China: Chinese…
– renminbi: yuan; CNY; RMB…
– currency manipulation:
– trade deals: trade; commerce…
– trade war:

4. Construct a basic search strategy.
• In most databases, you can combine terms
with and (both terms must appear in the
hit)and or (one term must appear in the hit—
for synonyms or evenly weighted terms)
– China and United States; policy or legislation
• In many databases, you can use a symbol such
as * or ! to take the place of letters to get hits
with multiple endings of a word
– econ*
• Example search:
united states and chin* and (trade or
commerce or econ*)

5. Choose the kinds of resources you
want to find and the best tools to find
them.
• Each tool helps you find a
specific, limited kind and
amount of information.
• Knowing which tools might
help you find what you're
looking for will save you a lot
of time.

6. Books
Books typically cover a single topic in depth.
Look in an online library catalog like
(UC San Diego’s library catalog)
• Tip: Many of the Library’s books are now
ebooks. Use to find the link.
• Tip: Not enough at UC San Diego, or the
book you want checked out?
– Try to request books from other
San Diego libraries
– Try to request books from other
University of California libraries

7. Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles cover more narrow topics than books.
Because they are shorter, they are often published more
quickly, too, making them more current. The Library has
literally hundreds of databases for finding articles.
Look in a discipline specific
databases such as Worldwide
Political Science Abstracts to
find the core publications in
your field.
Or look in multidisciplinary
databases for a little bit of
everything.

8. Primary Sources
Primary sources are materials that
document the event when it
happened—or as close to when it
happened as possible.
Items in the Library are cataloged in
and other resources are
available in specialized databases.
Examples include:
• News: traditional and social media
• Government publications and
official documents
• First person accounts: diaries,
letters, oral histories, blogs…

9. Statistics & Datasets
Generally available in specialized databases or
directly from the researchers as
• Aggregate/statistics (numbers already
analyzed)
• Microdata (lowest level of collection)

10. Run searches using the tools you
choose.
Experiment with keywords and
combinations of keywords, e.g. I
might try
• Currency Exchange Rate
Oversight Reform Act of 2013
• Chin* and currency
manipulation
• united states and chin* and
(trade or commerce or econ*)

11. Try different tools.
• Check the help screens or guides to each
database for specifics on combining your
terms and whether your results are ranked by
date or relevance.
• When you find good hits, look at the subject
headings/descriptors. Try running new
searches using those terms.

12. Get the citation information. You
need this for your bibliography.
You list the works you cite so that readers
interested in your research can find and read the
resources you used to draw your conclusions.
• Email records to yourself as a backup.
• Some databases can export the citation in a
specific format (e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA)
• Use RefWorks (free to UCSD students) to
manage, store, and format your citations.

13. Get the actual item.
• If the full text isn’t available in your search
results. Look for the button.
• Link to full text if available.
• No full text?
– Try for the print
• No UCSD access at all?
– You can usually request the item from another
library using the link.
– For books, try or

14. Evaluate the source
• Does it answer the
question?
• What are the
author’s credentials?
– And what sources do
they cite?
• Is the source current
enough for the kind
of research you're
doing?