Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

For tips on how to conduct a literature review

Finding Information on the World Wide Web — Excellent instruction by Stuart Peters at the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey.

Search engines

Google — Offers "users access to an index comprising 1.3 billion URLs."

LibrarySpot — Organized by topic, this is one of the first "vertical information portals."

Dogpile — Many users like this search engine because it runs more than half a dozen searches simultaneously.

Ask.com — Users type in questions, rather than keywords, to search for information on the Internet.

NorthernLight — Indexes more than 330 million Web pages.

Findarticles.com — Although you have to put up with ads, this is a good source for articles and book reviews.

Major Search Engines and Directories — An excellent guide to search engines and how they work. Naturally, Google is at the top of the list, but other searching programs and sites are listed and reviewed. Edited by Danny Sullivan.

On politics and policy

New York Times Politics Navigator — This is one of the best places to start looking for information about current events and politics. Users need to register for access, but registration is free.

On the Issues — The Policy News & Information Service, with links to public policy analyses and debates.

National Political Index — "[O]ne of the most comprehensive lists of political information on the Internet" with links to 3,500 sites.

Links of interest to political scientists

Avalon Project at Yale Law School — Documents pertaining to law, history, economics, politics, and government.

Heritage Foundation — The site for this conservative think-tank has a multitude of articles and papers on policy and politics.

Poly-Cy Internet Resources for Political Science — You can look up different political science departments in case you are interested in graduate school. By Bob Duval (West Virginia University).

Political science research guides

Many college and university library reference rooms maintain resources for political science students. If yours doesn't, use the search text "political science research guides" to find some. Here are some good examples:

• Roger Williams University Library
• Emory University Libraries
• University of Massachusetts

Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Social Movements — Links to American and international parties.

H-Pol Links — A member of the H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine. Nominally a history discussion list, this site leads to many useful resources for political scientists.

Policy Library — Library of and links to papers on public policy. Emphasis on the United Kingdom, but a great source for many American students.

Online Resource Guide to Political Inquiry — This Canadian site should not be overlooked.

Library of Congress, Country Studies — This resource "presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions" of about 100 countries throughout the world. It concentrates on "lesser known areas of the world" and so doesn't cover, for example, the United States and Canada.

Pointers to federal and state government sources

White House Briefing Room — This is a very good source of information and data about current policy disputes, although it is of course influenced by the current president's politics.

FindLaw — Leads to Supreme Court decisions, case law, and other legal subjects.