Databases, Datasets, and Web Resources - POLI 500 - Senior Seminar - LibGuides at University of South Carolina Upstate

Datasets on the Web

American National Election Studies (ANES)
To serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists, the ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.
Data.gov
Data.gov is primarily a federal open government data site. However, state, local, and tribal governments can also syndicate metadata describing their open data resources on Data.gov for greater discoverability.
General Social Survey (GSS) at NORC
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative survey of adults in the United States conducted since 1972. The GSS collects data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends in opinions, attitudes and behaviors. The GSS has adapted questions from earlier surveys, thereby allowing researchers to conduct comparisons for up to 80 years.
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
IQSS (Institute for Qualitative Social Science at Harvard) Dataverse Network
The Harvard Dataverse Repository is a free data repository open to all researchers from any discipline, both inside and outside of the Harvard community, where you can share, archive, cite, access, and explore research data. Each individual Dataverse collection is a customizable collection of datasets (or a virtual repository) for organizing, managing, and showcasing datasets.
ProPublica Data Store
Some free datasets are available at this website. From the site: "The ProPublica Data Store gives you access to the data behind our reporting and helps to sustain the challenging, expensive work of investigative reporting. We provide free access to the raw data behind our work, as well as premium data products and custom data services. These and other initiatives support ProPublica’s mission of investigative journalism in the public interest."
State Data Center
The State Data Center (SDC) Program is one of the Census Bureau's longest and most successful partnerships. This partnership between the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the island areas and the Census Bureau was created in 1978 to make data available locally to the public through a network of state agencies, universities, libraries, and regional and local governments.
Pew Research Center - Datasets
Pew Research Center makes its data available to the public for secondary analysis after a period of time.
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions.

Web Resources

The following websites are useful supplements to databases found at the USC Upstate Library. This list is not exhaustive, but is a good starting point to find source material related to your topic.

Chronicling America This link opens in a new window
Historical U.S. newspapers provided by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

American Foreign Policy Council - In-House Bulletins
AFPC is widely recognized as a source of timely, insightful analysis on issues of foreign policy, and works closely with members of Congress, the Executive Branch and the policymaking community. It is staffed by noted specialists in foreign and defense policy, and serves as a valuable resource to officials in the highest levels of government.
City-Data
By collecting and analyzing data from numerous sources, we're able to create detailed, informative profiles of all cities in the United States. From crime rates to weather patterns, you can find the data you're looking for on City-Data.com.
Congress.gov
Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC's Congressional Research Service.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - Main Page
Main landing page of the DHS.
Federal Register : Agency List
Direct link to the Federal Register's alphabetical listing of 432 government agencies.
Federal Register : The Daily Journal of the United States Government
Direct link to daily publications from Federal agencies in the Federal Register, including proposed rules, final rules, public notices, and Presidential actions.
GovInfo
GovInfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. GovInfo replaced the FDsys website in December 2018.
Govtrack.us
GovTrack.us tracks the United States Congress and helps Americans understand what is going on in their national legislature. We publish the status of federal legislation and information about your representative and senators in Congress.
more...less...
GovTrack.us is not a government website.
SC.gov - Agency List (A-Z)
The official listing of all state Agencies for the state of South Carolina.
South Carolina Association of Counties
The South Carolina Association of Counties (SCAC) is the only organization dedicated to the statewide representation of county government in South Carolina. Access to Chambers of Commerce can be found on this website.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States. This is an official website of the Department of Homeland Security.
USA.gov
The U.S. government's web portal. Contains an A-Z index of government departments and agencies.
The White House
A comprehensive website with links to White House briefings and press releases, issues, legislation, and other useful information.
The WWW Virtual Library
Started by none other than Tim Berners-Lee, the VLib (a search engine that specializes in scouring the invisible web for results) is not the biggest index of the Web, but it is one of the highest-quality.

Primary Sources Database - NEW

USC Upstate Library has access to a new database that may be useful for finding primary source documents relating to political science topics. For a more complete resource, please see the Primary Sources LibGuide.

Political Extremism and Radicalism This link opens in a new window
Primary source material on far-right and fascist movements, alongside significant coverage of radical left groups in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

General and Political Science Databases

Use the following links to access some of the library's general and political science databases suitable for your assignment. The list is not exhaustive; other databases may also yield useful information.

Annual Review of Political Science
The Annual Review of Political Science, in publication since 1998, covers significant developments in the field of Political Science including political theory and philosophy, international relations, political economy, political behavior, American and comparative politics, public administration and policy, and methodology.

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive general multidisciplinary database.
Census.gov This link opens in a new window
Population statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Historical Newspapers from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Coverage includes international, African-American, and Jewish titles. For details on collection contents, please see https://search.proquest.com/news/fromDatabasesLayer?accountid=28698
Historical Statistics of the United States Online This link opens in a new window
Detailed statistical information covering a vast array of topics.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access to journals in the humanities, social sciences, and science.
Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window
Pertains to all branches of the military.
Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
This resource covers newspapers from across the country.
Newswires (AP, UPI, etc.) This link opens in a new window
Near real-time access to top world-wide news from Associated Press, United Press International, PR Newswire, Xinhua, CNN Wire, and Business Wire.
Political Science Complete This link opens in a new window
Journals and conference papers including international publications on politics.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive online resource for legislative and executive publications and research.
Statistical Abstract of the U.S. This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, dating back to 1878.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Limited full text. Citations, abstracts, and indexing with limited full text of international serials literature in political science and related fields.

Special Topics Web Resources

BREXIT: Sources of Information [Library of Congress]
Business Reference Services is the starting point for conducting research at the Library of Congress in the subject areas of business and economics. Here, reference specialists in specific subject areas of business assist patrons in formulating search strategies and gaining access to the information and materials contained in the Library's rich collections of business and economics materials.

POLI 500 - Senior Seminar: Databases, Datasets, and Web Resources

Datasets on the Web

Web Resources

Primary Sources Database - NEW

General and Political Science Databases

Special Topics Web Resources