Doing research in political theory
Simon Elichko • they/them •
Social Sciences & Data Librarian
Making sense of knowledge
Contemporary academic disciplines
But what does this mean for when you do
research in political theory?
Search tip: Put "On Liberty" inside quotation marks to find articles with those exact words right next to each other. This can help make your search results more accurate.
Caveat: If you search "John Stuart Mill" you won't find articles with his name written as JS Mill or John S Mill.
You can filter articles by (journal) subject in JSTOR
How to filter:
Scroll down to Subject, then type Political Science. Check the box to apply the filter.
What this means:
If you choose Political Science, you'll only see articles* that are published in journals or books that JSTOR's editors have tagged as Political Science.
*Some book chapters too.
Keep in mind that when you search for articles JSTOR, you're getting text matches.
Cited reference searching is another option.
Finding citing articles using Google Scholar
Go to: scholar.google.com
Try this search: Souls of Black Folk author:Du Bois
Select Cited by 29102 to view citing articles and books
* This number is incorrect, but Google Scholar citation searching can be valuable anyway.
You can use Google Scholar to search within articles and books that cite Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk.
Before you search, check the "Search within" box.
Try these searches:
Or try a more complex example:
source:"political theory" OR source:"american political science review"
Journals & Publishers
Books and journal articles in JSTOR are limited to scholarly journals and university presses. Relatively high-quality, curated selection.
Can find articles from journals in the subjects you specify.
Narrower selection of content, but vetted. Citations will be accurate.
Generally excludes articles published in the last 3-5 years.
Journals & Publishers
Books and journal articles in Google Scholar are often scholarly, but there's no guarantee. Not a curated selection. You'll find high and low-quality materials here.
Can search within articles that cite a certain article/book
Wider selection of content than JSTOR, but full of errors (example).
Can't filter results by academic discipline/subject area.
Find more databases for
Political Science research here:
Relevance
- Is it on topic?
- Search within the article
- What are you looking for?
- Background information
-
Evidence / exhibits
- Texts to analyze
-
Arguments
- Other scholars' points that you can critique and build on
- Methods
Quality
- Is it scholarly?
- Advantage of using JSTOR
-
Author
- Author/contributor bios
- Can look them up
-
Publisher
- _____ University Press
- Routledge, Springer/Palgrave
- Citations
- How often is this article or author cited?
How do you know if a source is any good?
The challenge of researching authors whose work is influential...
Resources for navigating scholarly literature
- These are written by scholars with relevant expertise
- Purpose is to highlight key themes, arguments, and authors
- Helpful for finding sources you may want to read and cite
- Particularly useful for finding your way through a large body of literature. (This includes figuring out which questions and arguments have already been addressed by other scholars.)
Find a link to Oxford Handbooks on the
Online: You can limit Oxford Handbooks to the Political Theory category, and then search within for an author (e.g. Foucault).
Paper copies: If you like to read on paper, you can find print copies of many Oxford Handbooks at McCabe, and at Bryn Mawr and Haverford's libraries.
How do you borrow a book?
Login to Tripod to request a book from any TriCo library.
Or find it on the shelf, then take to the front desk to borrow it.
How long can you keep it for?
You can usually borrow a library book for the rest of the semester.
Examples of annotated bibliographies:
Try it:
- Go to swarthmore.edu/libraries
- Search Tripod for Oxford Bibliographies
- Click on any result and follow the link to the Oxford Bibliographies site
- Search for the last name of a theorist you've read this semester.
- Filter your results to show only Political Science. (Look on the left side, "Narrow Your Choices")
Generative AI + political theory research
Generative AI + political theory research
Interactive story from Financial Times
(how to set up your FT account through Swat)
LLMs are not search engines looking up facts; they are pattern-spotting engines that guess the next best option in a sequence.
- Output from predictive models can reflect the biases and patterns of the data the system was trained on
- So-called "hallucinations" – statements that seem correct, but aren't, and
"hallu-citations" – citations to non-existent research- Differentiating between accurate and erroneous output sometimes requires domain-relevant expertise and careful attention
- Particular challenges for research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences (like political theory), even with AI tools that focus on peer-reviewed research:
- Most draw citations from the science-heavy Semantic Scholar database
- Emphasize journal articles and ignore books (important in humanities research)
- Goals for the task vs. strengths and weaknesses of the tools
- General summary versus nuanced, contextually-relevant analysis
- Consider the purpose - product? process?
Generative AI and research:
some key considerations
Inciteful
Tool for finding sources
using citation networks
- Like Google Scholar, you can use Inciteful to find citing sources
- Inciteful gives you more options to explore within connected sources
- Has a better database for humanities (and social sci) research than Semantic Scholar
Try it:
- Go to inciteful.xyz
- Look up a book or article you've read in class. See if you can find the citation graph for it. (ex: Second Treatise of Government)
- Explore the citation network diagram. Do you see any familiar authors? Scroll down to see more options, such as a list of likely review articles.
Remember to search Tripod if you hit a paywall when trying to read a book or article.
Develop your research skills
& get support with your projects
Meet with Simon
Schedule at bit.ly/selichk1
Email them at selichk1@swarthmore.edu
(including if you need to meet at a different time)
Use the chat in Tripod to get help from librarians and Research & Information Associates (RIAs).
You can also email librarian@swarthmore.edu