Library guides: Politics, Languages and International Studies: Search the literature

New to a topic?

Reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, can be a good place to start.

Oxford Reference Online
Collection of reference works published by Oxford University Press covering the Arts, English Language Reference, Modern Languages, Politics and Social Sciences, and Science.

Finding literature

The following databases are listed from broad subject disciplines to the multidisciplinary.

When you find a reference of interest, click on to find out whether the Library provides access to the full document, either online or within the Library's print collection.
Try Learning at Bath for help with search skills and evaluating what you find.

IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences)
Find literature relating to anthropology, economics, political science and sociology. Includes articles and books from 1951-
MLA International Bibliography
An index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film from the early 20th century onwards. Includes journal articles, books and dissertations
Web of Science Core Collection
Index to selected journals, conference papers and book series across all subject areas.

Web of Science Core Collection consists of the following databases:

Science Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Conference Proceedings Citation Index
Book Citation Index
Emerging Sources Citation Index
Current Chemical Reactions
Index Chemicus

Web of Science help

Scopus
Index to journals and conference papers across all subject areas.

Find newspaper articles

Nexis
Covers international news including business, company and industry news. It gives full-text access to the international press, including major world newspapers and the trade/advertising press.

Coverage includes a separate 25-year archive of The Financial Times (with a previous 30 day embargo).

Search for theses and working papers

For postgraduates and researchers. the following are useful resources for theses and working papers.

University of Bath: online theses
You can filter theses by department and also search by key word
University of Bath: printed theses by department
Some online theses are also listed
Other institutions: theses & dissertations

Find archival collections

Archives and Research Collections
The Library manages several unique collections that include rare books, specialist publications and historical records; to view, you are advised to book an appointment

Need to find more?

The following resources are useful for in-depth searching or additional sources, such as finding out about research methods.

Finding literature: film, languages, international studies

Film studies
Foreign languages
International studies

The following resources cover tracing literature to finding video clips and programmes.

Film and Television Literature Index
Trace literature covering film and television theory, preservation and restoration, screenwriting, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.

BFI InView
Non-fiction film/tv titles illustrating British society from the British Film Insitute archive
Screen Online
A history of British film & tv which also reflects on Britain's social history. Coverage includes video clips, interviews, stills, posters & press books.
Box of Broadcasts National (BoB)
Record and access broadcasts from more than 65 TV and radio channels. Academics can embed links in Moodle and embed clips in presentations.

The following resources help trace foreign language materials.

Translation Studies Bibliography
An index for the study of translation and interpreting studies. Includes journal articles, monographs, reviews, reference materials, dissertations and unpublished manuscripts.
Cairn.info
Francophone publications in social sciences and humanities. Access the international edition of abstracts and selected articles from key French-language journals which have been translated into English.
Integrum Profi
The world's largest archive of mass media of Russia and the CIS states, with over 500 million full-text documents.

It provides a flexible search engine including a range of the professional analytic tools for research in any field of Russian studies. Interface available in both English and Russian, however the majority of sources are in Russian.

The following resources cover a variety of literature related to specific countries or themes.

CEEOL Central and Eastern European Online Library
Trace humanities and social science scholarly journals, e-books and grey literature from and about Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Includes foreign language publications.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
Devoted to international politics and related fields. Includes working papers, policy briefs, and current analysis and commentary, as well as scholarly journal articles from 1991, e-books, course packs and videos. The Economist Intelligence Unit supplies comprehensive country surveys, including in-depth political and economic data and detailed maps.

Teaching materials include original case studies written by leading experts and course packs which can be used in political science classes.
Digital National Security Archive
Contains a vast collection of important declassified US government documents.

Provides the full-text of vital primary source material to advance research in twentieth and twenty-first century history, politics, and international relations

Eldis
Free access to research on international development issues including full-text research and policy documents from developing countries.

European Views of the Americas 1493-1750
An index to help trace European works that relate to the Americas published before 1750. Created from the bibliography European Americana, a chronological guide to works printed in Europe between 1493 and 1750.

Global Terrorism Database
Open-source, including information and systematic data on domestic, transnational and international terrorist incidents around the world from 1970 through to 2016.

Choose a research method

There are different types of research requiring different methodologies and considerations. Sage Research methods is a good starting point. To find additional literature try the library catalogue and databases such as Web of Science and Scopus.

SAGE Research Methods
E-books, articles, videos and case studies about research methods (quantitative, qualitative and mixed: including data analysis, interviews, focus groups, literature reviews and systematic reviews)

Surveys of public opinion, attitudes, values & behaviours

Arab Barometer
Covering North Africa & the Middle East: its country reports provide further statistics

ASEP/JDS Databank
Archive of international social sciences data; to change the language, click the English/Espagnol tab

The site also links to various data collections including Afrobarometer, East-Asian Barometer and Globalbarometer (covering comparative surveys from 55 countries). In each of these collections, you can retrieve data via the 'select study' option.
ESS European Social Survey
Attitudes, values and behaviours relating to Europe's institutions.

What If the Library does not have the materials you need?

Interlibrary Loans Service
If you find references to books, journals, articles or other materials we either do not stock in print or subscribe to online, you can request these via our Inter-library Loans Service. Each request costs the Library about £10 so please only order essential items. If you haven't used the service before you will need to register.

Politics, Languages and International Studies: Search the literature

Recommended reading