Political science research examines the structures, processes, and outcomes of governance, politics, and power — from the behavior of individual voters to the dynamics of international conflict, from the design of constitutions to the implementation of public policy. The discipline’s four traditional subfields — American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory — use different source types and analytical methods, though they share a common commitment to systematic analysis of political phenomena. A research paper in political science might require voting data from election archives, legislative records from congressional databases, public opinion data from survey organizations, policy analyses from think tanks, case law from court databases, or philosophical texts from the canon of political thought. This guide, part of iResearchNet’s How to Do Research series, covers the databases, data sources, and methods that U.S. college and university students need for research papers in political science. For topic ideas, see iResearchNet’s Political Science Research Paper Topics.
Academic Databases for Political Science
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (ProQuest) is the discipline’s primary bibliographic database, indexing journal articles, books, and dissertations on political science and international relations from around the world. It provides abstracts for most indexed items and covers all subfields — comparative politics, international relations, political theory, public administration, public policy, and methodology. Most U.S. university libraries provide access through ProQuest.
PAIS Index
The PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service, ProQuest) indexes journal articles, books, government documents, statistical publications, and reports from public and private organizations on public affairs and public policy. PAIS is broader than political science — it also covers economics, law, social welfare, and public health — making it particularly valuable for policy-oriented research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. PAIS includes government documents and gray literature (reports from think tanks, NGOs, and international organizations) that purely academic databases may not index.
Additional Databases
JSTOR archives complete runs of major political science journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and World Politics. Google Scholar provides broad indexing and citation tracking. HeinOnline provides full-text access to law reviews and congressional materials essential for research on constitutional law, civil liberties, and the judicial process. SSRN hosts working papers in political science, law, and public policy. Project MUSE provides full-text access to current issues of many political science and international relations journals.
Data Sources for Empirical Political Research
Political science has become an increasingly data-driven discipline, and familiarity with the major data repositories is essential for students conducting quantitative or mixed-methods research.
ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), based at the University of Michigan, is the world’s largest archive of social science data. ICPSR holds more than 16,000 datasets covering elections, public opinion, political behavior, governance, criminal justice, health, education, and economic policy. Datasets are freely available to students and faculty at ICPSR member institutions (which include most major U.S. universities). ICPSR’s American National Election Studies (ANES) — the longest-running academic survey of U.S. voting behavior, conducted in every presidential election year since 1948 — is one of the most cited data sources in American politics research.
Election and Voting Data
Election data is available from several sources depending on the level of government and the type of data needed. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) publishes data on federal campaign contributions, expenditures, and election results. The MIT Election Data + Science Lab provides cleaned, standardized election returns at the county and precinct level for U.S. presidential, congressional, and state elections. The Dave Leip Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections provides historical county-level presidential election results. State election offices publish state and local election returns on their individual websites.
For campaign finance data, the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets) provides searchable data on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, and the personal finances of elected officials. FollowTheMoney (National Institute on Money in Politics) provides state-level campaign finance data.
Public Opinion Data
Public opinion surveys provide essential data for research on political attitudes, partisanship, policy preferences, and political knowledge. The Pew Research Center publishes reports and datasets on American political attitudes, media consumption, and social trends. The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, has tracked American social and political attitudes since 1972. The Gallup Organization publishes polling data on presidential approval, issue attitudes, and economic confidence. Roper iPoll (Roper Center at Cornell) archives polling data from hundreds of survey organizations and allows searching across surveys by topic.
Legislative and Congressional Data
Congress.gov, maintained by the Library of Congress, provides the full text of bills, resolutions, committee reports, floor statements, and voting records for current and recent Congresses. GovInfo provides access to the Congressional Record, committee hearing transcripts, and other legislative documents. GovTrack provides tools for tracking legislation, analyzing voting patterns, and monitoring congressional activity.
For systematic quantitative analysis of congressional behavior, VoteView (maintained by political scientists at UCLA) provides ideological scores for every member of Congress based on roll-call voting records, allowing researchers to analyze polarization, party unity, and ideological change over time. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) publishes nonpartisan analyses of policy issues that provide accessible overviews of complex legislative topics.
Government and Executive Branch Sources
Beyond legislative data, the executive branch produces substantial material relevant to political science research. The White House website publishes presidential statements, executive orders, proclamations, and policy documents. The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara provides a searchable archive of presidential documents from every president, including State of the Union addresses, press conferences, executive orders, signing statements, and proclamations — an indispensable resource for research on presidential power, rhetoric, and policy.
Federal agencies publish reports, data, and regulatory documents through GovInfo and individual agency websites. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) publishes nonpartisan audits, evaluations, and investigations of federal programs and spending. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) publishes the president’s annual budget proposal, which details spending priorities across all federal agencies and is essential for research on fiscal policy and government spending.
For state-level government data, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides comparative information on state legislation, policies, and institutional structures. The Council of State Governments (CSG) and the National Governors Association (NGA) provide additional state-level policy resources.
Think Tanks and Policy Research Organizations
Think tanks and policy research organizations produce a substantial body of analysis that falls between academic scholarship and journalism — more rigorous and detailed than news coverage, but often more timely and policy-oriented than peer-reviewed journal articles. Students should understand how to use these sources effectively and how to assess their credibility.
Nonpartisan or bipartisan research organizations are generally the most credible sources for policy analysis. The Brookings Institution publishes research on economics, governance, foreign policy, and social policy. The RAND Corporation conducts research on defense, health, education, and public safety. The Congressional Budget Office provides nonpartisan fiscal analysis. The Urban Institute publishes research on housing, health, social policy, and criminal justice. The Council on Foreign Relations publishes research and analysis on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs.
Ideologically oriented think tanks produce research that may be methodologically sound but is framed by their policy perspective. Organizations such as the Heritage Foundation (conservative), the American Enterprise Institute (center-right), the Center for American Progress (progressive), and the Cato Institute (libertarian) publish policy analyses from their stated philosophical positions. Students may cite these sources, but they should identify the organization’s ideological orientation and should not present ideologically informed analysis as neutral or nonpartisan. Cross-checking claims from ideologically oriented sources against peer-reviewed scholarship or nonpartisan government data strengthens the paper’s credibility.
Using Media Sources in Political Science
News media provide essential real-time documentation of political events, but they serve a different function in a political science paper than in a journalism or media studies paper. In political science, news sources are appropriate for establishing that events occurred (a bill was introduced, a protest took place, a speech was delivered), for documenting the timeline of political developments, and for capturing public discourse and political rhetoric. They are not substitutes for peer-reviewed analysis of why events occurred or what their consequences were.
Established newspapers of record — the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal — provide the most reliable news coverage for political research. Wire services (Associated Press, Reuters) provide factual reporting with minimal editorial framing. Political news outlets such as Politico, The Hill, and CQ Roll Call provide detailed coverage of legislative activity, lobbying, and electoral politics. Students should distinguish between news reporting (factual accounts by journalists) and opinion writing (editorials, columns, and op-eds that advocate positions) and should cite the former when establishing facts and the latter only when analyzing political argumentation or discourse.
Historical newspaper archives — available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Newspapers.com, and the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America project — are valuable for research on the political history of specific eras, events, or movements.
International and Comparative Data
For comparative politics and international relations research, several datasets provide cross-national data on political systems, institutions, and outcomes. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) provides the most detailed data on democratic governance worldwide, with indicators covering electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian dimensions of democracy for nearly every country since 1789. The Polity Project classifies political regimes on a spectrum from full autocracy to full democracy. Freedom House publishes annual assessments of political rights and civil liberties for every country.
The Correlates of War (COW) project provides data on interstate wars, militarized disputes, alliances, trade, and national capabilities — the foundational dataset for quantitative international relations research. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) provides data on armed conflicts worldwide, including battle deaths, non-state conflicts, and one-sided violence. The World Bank provides governance indicators and development data for cross-national analysis.
For international organizations and treaties, the United Nations website provides General Assembly resolutions, Security Council documents, and treaty texts. The International Court of Justice publishes its opinions online.
Research Methods in Political Science
Political science uses a diverse range of methods, and the appropriate method depends on the subfield and the research question.
Quantitative Methods
Quantitative research dominates American politics, comparative politics, and much of international relations scholarship. Common approaches include regression analysis (estimating the effect of independent variables on political outcomes while controlling for confounding factors), experimental methods (randomized controlled trials, survey experiments, and natural experiments), time-series analysis (examining how political variables change over time), and formal modeling (using mathematical models — particularly game theory — to derive predictions about strategic political behavior).
Students conducting quantitative political research should identify their data source, describe their sample, specify their analytical technique, and report results in standard statistical formats. Statistical software commonly used in political science includes Stata, R, and Python. Many political science departments offer methods courses and workshops that introduce students to these tools.
Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods — case studies, process tracing, comparative historical analysis, interviews, and ethnographic observation — are widely used in comparative politics, international relations, and the study of political institutions. A case study of a specific policy adoption, a democratic transition, or a diplomatic negotiation provides the kind of detailed, contextual analysis that large-N quantitative studies cannot. Process tracing — a method for identifying the causal mechanisms linking a cause to an outcome within a single case — is one of the most widely used qualitative techniques in political science.
Students writing qualitative political science papers should explain their case selection rationale (why this case is informative for the research question), describe their data sources (documents, interviews, archives), and present their analytical procedures transparently. King, Keohane, and Verba’s Designing Social Inquiry (1994) remains an influential framework for thinking about inference in qualitative political research, though the qualitative methods literature has developed substantially since its publication.
Political Theory
Political theory research differs from empirical political science in that it engages primarily with texts and arguments rather than data. Political theory papers analyze the works of canonical and contemporary political thinkers (Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Rawls, Habermas, and others), examine conceptual questions (What is justice? What legitimizes political authority? What are the limits of democratic majority rule?), or apply theoretical frameworks to contemporary political problems. The research sources for political theory papers include the primary texts of political philosophers, secondary scholarship interpreting those texts, and the broader philosophical and historical literature that contextualizes them.
Key Journals in Political Science
The leading general-interest journals include the American Political Science Review (APSR, the flagship journal of the American Political Science Association), the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), the Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis (methodology). Annual Review of Political Science publishes authoritative review articles that synthesize the state of knowledge on major topics.
Subfield journals serve particular areas. World Politics, International Organization, International Security, and International Studies Quarterly cover international relations. Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and the British Journal of Political Science cover comparative politics. Political Theory, Political Studies, and the Review of Politics cover political theory. Public Administration Review, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Policy Studies Journal cover public administration and public policy. Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Electoral Studies cover voting behavior and public opinion.
Professional Associations
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is the discipline’s primary professional organization, publishing the American Political Science Review and hosting an annual meeting that is the main venue for presenting political science research. APSA’s organized sections cover every major subfield and thematic area. The International Studies Association (ISA) serves international relations scholars and publishes International Studies Quarterly. The Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) hosts one of the largest regional political science conferences and publishes the American Journal of Political Science.
Student memberships in these organizations are available at reduced rates and typically include journal access and conference registration discounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best database for political science research?
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (ProQuest) is the discipline’s primary database. For policy-oriented research, the PAIS Index provides broader coverage including government documents and gray literature. For datasets, ICPSR is the primary archive. JSTOR provides essential archival access to the major journals. Google Scholar provides useful citation tracking across all subfields.
Where do I find data on elections and voting?
For federal election results, the FEC and the MIT Election Data + Science Lab provide the most reliable data. For campaign finance, OpenSecrets provides searchable federal data and FollowTheMoney covers state-level contributions. For voter attitudes and political behavior, the American National Election Studies (ANES) provides the most detailed academic survey data, and the Pew Research Center and Gallup provide polling data.
What citation style does political science use?
Most political science journals and courses use a variant of APSA style, which follows a modified author-date format similar to Chicago style (Author-Date system). Some courses use standard APA or Chicago style instead. Students should confirm the required citation format with their instructor. The APSA Style Manual for Political Science provides the discipline’s specific guidelines.
How do I research a political topic without being biased?
Political science research requires analytical objectivity even when studying politically charged topics. Students should present evidence from multiple perspectives rather than constructing one-sided arguments, should distinguish between empirical claims (which can be tested against data) and normative claims (which involve value judgments), and should cite evidence that challenges their argument as well as evidence that supports it. Using peer-reviewed sources, government data, and established survey organizations rather than partisan media helps ensure that the paper’s evidentiary foundation is credible regardless of the reader’s political orientation.
Related Pages
- How to Do Research — Overview of research methods and discipline-specific guides
- How to Do Research on Law — Legal databases and court research
- How to Do Research on History — Archival research and historiographical methods
- Political Science Research Paper Topics — Topic ideas for political science papers
- How to Write a Research Paper — Complete step-by-step guide