4 websites to find previous research

As a political sciences student a lot of the work you do is trying to find previous research on specific topics. These are usually the basis of what you will then write about. These literature reviews are crucial for the analysis section or in my case the entire Master thesis. So, in this blog I thought I’d give you an overview of the websites that are useful to finding relevant research papers, book chapters and scientific articles.

First it’s important to know that through the University you get access to a large amount of journals, books and articles. If you are connected to the Wi-Fi on Campus you will automatically be logged in. Otherwise you can log in manually or through the University VPN.

These are the websites I would recommend:

1. LiU Library

This is one of the easiest ways of looking for relevant publications. The Library offers a large amount of publications. You can easily search for authors, keywords or titles. I recommend you use the advanced search option as it allows you to be more precise. The more precise you are the less results you will get which makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Once you find an interesting publication you will either be redirected to another website where you can read and download the publication or you will be shown if the book is available in the library. Here is the link to the LiU Library.

2. Google Scholar

The second option is to use Google Scholar. This will give a lot of results as it can basically access all databases. However, it is not a given that you will be able to actually read the entire publication as some aren’t available even with the University access. In order make your search more specific use commands like OR, AND or “…” if you what a specific formulation to be included in the results. Here is the link to Google Scholar.

3. Scopus

This is a website that is a bit more condensed. It works very similar to the previous ones mentioned. On this website it’s important that you log in with your LiU credentials. Otherwise you won’t get full access to the publications. Scopus will usually give you a more specific selection of related publications than Google Scholar. Here is the link to Scopus.

4. ResearchGate

Research Gate is a bit of a last resort when it comes to finding a specific article that isn’t accessible through the University. It is social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. To be able to search the platform you have to create an account with your University mail address. Sometimes you get lucky and find the paper you are looking for in its entirety published by the author. Here is the link to ResearchGate.