International Relations *

Listed below are multidisciplinary databases--scholarly search engines that search a variety of subject areas all at once--that can be used to scan the literature on a topic. Use these databases to obtain an initial understanding of how scholars have researched a topic from a variety of perspectives.

• BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine -- a comprehensive search engine that indexes scholarly internet resources, created by Bielefeld University Library in Bielefeld, Germany. Approximately sixty percent of contents are freely accessible, although BASE does not currently offer full-text searching.
• Google Scholar -- searches mostly scholarly materials, such as, books, book chapters, journal articles, research reports, dissertations and theses, technical reports, working papers, and many other document types. To set up Google Scholar so that you have full-text access to USC Libraries resources, click here.
• JSTOR -- a multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles covering most major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for identifying historical research on a topic; does not cover current research.
• ProQuest Multiple -- a database with extensive full-text and linked coverage of scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers. Good place to begin your search for scholarly journal articles or current news coverage of a topic.
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses -- access to doctoral dissertations and Master's theses from more than 3,100 contributing institutions. The database contains full text PDF copies of over 2.5 million of titles with 200,000 works added annually. Contents are updated weekly.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Below are the most comprehensive databases that support the study of international relations and its sub-disciplines.

• Columbia International Affairs Online [CIAO] -- provides the full text of a wide range of scholarship books, working papers from universities and research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
• IREON [International Relations and Area Studies Gateway] -- International RElations and area studies ONline is a free gateway to research in the fields of international relations and regional and area studies. IREON contains more than 5 million references covering topics, such as, foreign and security policy, business administration, economics and business practice, international cooperation and development policy, European politics and transatlantic relations, regional and country studies worldwide, foreign cultural policy, and climate and environment, energy. NOTE: Your browser may post a security warning when clicking on the site, but this is only due to an unfamiliar domain designation [ireon-portal.de], not because there is a security risk to your computer.
• Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks. Coverage is international in scope.
• ProQuest Political Science -- this database gives users access to hundreds of leading political science and international relations journals from Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. However, also included is more than a thousand recent full-text doctoral dissertations, together with working papers, conference proceedings, country profiles, political news and other sources.
• Public Affairs Information Services [PAIS] -- indexes selective subjects and bibliographic access to periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, Internet resources, and other publications from 120 countries. Includes historical coverage from 1915 to the present.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts -- provides indexing of the international journal literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy. Over 1,700 titles are monitored for coverage and, of these, 67% are published outside of the United States.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Below are links to additional databases and online resources that support the study of international relations and its sub-disciplines.

• AccessUN -- indexes the majority of United Nations documents and publications. Articles appearing in UN periodicals are individually indexed as well as bilateral and multilateral treaties in the UN Treaty Series.
• Access World News -- comprehensive news collection for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos.
• Air University's Library Index to Military Periodicals -- a subject index to significant articles, news items, and editorials from English language military and aeronautical periodicals since 1988 and is updated continuously.
• Border and Migration Studies Online – a collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including the U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others.
• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre -- a database to find information about the exploitive practices of 4000 businesses worldwide cited from news and other sources.
• Chatham House Online Archive -- provides a searchable, browsable research environment that enables users to explore approximately half a million pages and over ninety years of research, expert analysis, and commentary published in briefing papers, special reports, pamphlets, conference papers and books.
• Economist Intelligence Unit [EIU] Country Reports -- a source of business intelligence on political and economic trends in 180 countries. An overall profile of each country is provided annually and a current report is produced quarterly. Both include current detailed statistics.
• Eldis -- provides open access to relevant, up-to-date and diverse research on international development issues. The database includes over 50,000 summaries and provides links to full-text research and policy documents from over 8,000 publishers.
• Europa: Gateway to the European Union -- provides up-to-date coverage of European Union affairs and essential information on European integration. Users can consult all legislation currently in force or under discussion, access the websites of each of the EU institutions, and find out about the policies administered by the European Union under the powers devolved to it by the Treaties.
• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports -- translated full-text transcripts of international radio and television broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspaper and magazine articles, and government pronouncements. The reports contain political, military, economic, environmental, and sociological news and information, as well as some scientific and technical information. The Daily Reports are available from September 1941 through October of 1996. Many of these materials are firsthand reports of events as they occurred.
• Homeland Security Digital Library -- provides access to documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management collected from federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, professional organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and international governing bodies.
• Keesing's World News Archive -- provides access unbiased, full-text reports of the most historically significant political, social, and economic events of the world since 1931. About 150 new articles are added each month.
• Martinus Nijhoff Online -- a database indexing the book content of Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, a leading publisher of imprints in international law and human rights law. Use the database to locate titles that can then be searched in the Library catalog or the Law Library's catalog, ADVOCAT.
• Military Database -- covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more. Included among its contents are scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
• Military and Intelligence Database Collection -- provides access to scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of the past and current state of military affairs. The database offers content in key subject areas including governmental policies, the socioeconomic effects of war, the structure of the armed forces, and more.
• OECD iLibrary -- this is the full-text publications portal of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As well as collecting comparable statistics and economic and social data, OECD monitors trends, analyzes and forecasts economic developments and researches social changes or evolving patterns in trade, environment, agriculture, technology, taxation and more.
• RAND Corporation Published Research -- provides access to RAND publications, most of which are available as free eBook downloads, dating back to 1946. Words or phrases can be entered in the search box or items can be filtered by topic, such as, cybersecurity or intelligence analysis.
• Security Issues Online -- a multimedia collection on key world affairs issues including coverage of topics related to borders and migrations, human rights violations, security, revolution and protest, and the environment. The database contains 575,000 pages including rare, previously-unpublished archival material, 900 hours of video, 3,000 photographs.
• SIPRI Yearbook -- provides an overview of developments in international security, weapons and technology, military expenditure, the arms trade and arms production, and armed conflicts, along with efforts to control conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• United Nations iLibrary -- provides a single digital destination for accessing research reports, journals, data, and publication series distributed by the United Nations Secretariat and its funds and programs.
• United Nations Official Documentation System -- the official repository for documents published by the United Nations including parliamentary documents and official records from 1992 to present are accessible in all official languages of the United Nations and the full text of resolutions from all UN bodies are available from 1946 to present.
• World Development Report -- a search engine offering full-text access to all World Development Reports  published by the World Bank since 1978 as well as the background papers upon which the most recent reports were drawn.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Below are links to databases and online resources that support the study of international relations and its sub-disciplines from a regional perspective. Many of these resources include research by authors who reside in non-Western countries, thereby, providing a different perspective on topics.

• Africa Portal -- a research repository and an expert analysis hub on African affairs. Africa Portal curates a comprehensive collection of research material that holds more than 5,000 research reports, occasional papers, and policy briefs. The entire repository is open access and equipped with a search function and available for free, full-text download.
• AfricaBib -- a collection of Africana social science titles, presented in one easily accessible location on the internet. It is the culmination of over forty years of Africana research. Most records contain a link to the full text of the publication elsewhere on the internet.
• African Journals Online (AJOL) -- the world's largest online collection of African-published, peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The site currently hosts over 370 peer-reviewed journals from 27 African countries, many focused on international affairs. Coverage is from 1998 to the present.
• Arab World Research Source -- a resource of scholarly journals, quality magazines, trade publications, industry profiles, country reports, market research reports and conference papers related to the Arab World. This resource reaches across all major subject disciplines, including business, economics, science, technology, humanities and sociology. The database contains more than 140 scholarly full text titles, with the majority of the journals featuring Arabic full text.
• Australia and New Zealand -- this database provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in Australia and New Zealand. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• Bibliography of Asian Studies -- contains over 740,000 records on all subjects, particularly in the humanities and the social sciences, pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.
• Central America Journals Online -- a service to provide access to Central American published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship published in peer-reviewed journals from in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, covering the full range of academic disciplines. Use the Site Search function to search for individual articles on a topic. Coverage is from 2010 to the present.
• China Academic Journals -- full-text articles from 1208 Chinese journal titles (a limited number in English) in the areas of economics, politics, law and related disciplines dating from 1994 to the present. Retrospective articles, dating back to 1915, are included for 27 journal titles.
• Clase and Periodica – an index of Latin American journals from 1975 to the present which combines two databases. Clase is an index to articles published in Latin American journals specializing in the social sciences and humanities. Periodica covers journals specializing in science and technology. Offers access to more than 300,000 bibliographic citations from documents published in 2,600 scholarly journals in the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English languages published in journals edited in 24 different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from publications that focus on Pan-American issues.
• Continental Europe Database – provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in many European countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and the humanities.
• East and South Asia Database -- provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in many East Asian and South Asian countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• East Europe, Central Europe Database -- offers full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in East European and Central European countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• Hispanic American Periodicals Index -- source for authoritative, worldwide information about current political, economic, and social issues concerning Central and South America, Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. Includes sources in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Index Islamicus -- indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim world. Records in the database cover almost 100 years of publications and include not only works written about the Middle East, but also about the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere.
• LANIC [copy and paste this link: http://lanic.utexas.edu/] -- the Latin American Network Information Center database contains an extensive collection of web-based resources on Latin America, maintained by the University of Texas. Browse to find lists on relevant topics, such as human rights, migration, corruption and trade. Content ended in 2015 but still useful for contemporary history studies.
• Latin America and Iberia Database -- provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in many Latin American countries, Spain, and Portugal. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• Middle East and Africa Database -- this database provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in many Middle Eastern and African countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• MideastWire.com -- an Internet-based service of translated news briefs covering key political, cultural, economic, and opinion pieces appearing in the Arab media.
• Political Database of the Americas -- offers information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to democracy in the Americas.
• ProQuest India Database -- a comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource providing full-text access to scholarly journals, all published in India. These scholarly sources support many academic fields of study, such as business, medicine, science, technology, social science,s and humanities. ProQuest Indian Journals is a current resource, with most coverage from the last five years and updated daily with new content.
• REDIB -- open access database providing access to high quality scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences. The titles are in Spanish and are published in Spain and Latin America. Currently the database contains more than 400 titles and 110,000 full-text articles.
• Turkey Database -- this database provides full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in Turkey. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• United Kingdom and Ireland Database -- provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
• Vietnam Journals Online – provides access to Vietnamese published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship covering the full range of academic disciplines. The journals are listed alphabetically, to help researchers find journals of relevance and to facilitate browsing of the journals. The website also has a sophisticated searching tool to locate articles of interest. Coverage is from 2007 to the present.
• World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean -- brings together primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean; academic journals and news-feeds covering the region; reference articles and commentary; maps and statistics; and audio and video. World Scholar covers topics such as politics, economics, religion, culture, international affairs, the environment, science, and technology.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.