If you discover a book that is not available in the Library, and would be useful for your assignment, dissertation or research, ask the Library to purchase it. We rely on our students and staff to help build up diverse and relevant collections across the social sciences, so please put the details of the book on the book suggestion form 

The majority of books are now available in ebook format and can usually be acquired quite quickly. Books can also be purchased in print format if you prefer.

Dictionaries and encyclopaedias are helpful places to start your research, as they define & clarify concepts and terminology. Good encyclopaedias will usefully summarise a topic, and they often point to some of the key literature on a topic (follow up these references through the library catalogue).

Rather than use free Web sources (which are often unreliable), use the academic online resources listed below. The Library has access to Oxford Research Encyclopedias and Oxford Bibliographies Online, which are excellent sources of information and benefit from new articles being regularly added to them:

SpringerLink is a highly useful resource. Springer is a major academic publisher in Politics & IR, and we have access to reference works in the Humanities & Social Sciences. Some of these encyclopedias are "living reference works" which are regularly updated with new content.

Some well-known online reference sources that may be useful for your research:

Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought / edited by David Miller(Blackwell: 1987)

Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Governance & Politics / edited by Philipp H. Pattberg and Fariborz Zelli (Edward Elgar: 2015)

Encyclopedia of Governance / edited by Mark Bevir (SAGE: 2007)

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought / edited by Gregory Claeys (SAGE: 2013)

Encyclopedia of Political Theory / edited by Mark Bevir (SAGE: 2010)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - highly regarded open access work, regularly updated

World encyclopedia of political systems & parties / edited by Neil Schlager and Jayne Weisblatt. 4th ed. (Facts on File: 2006)

Useful academic reference works across the social sciences more broadly include:

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. 2nd ed. (Elsevier: 2015)

The Social Science Encyclopedia / edited by Adam & Jessica Kuper (Routledge: 2004)

Encyclopedia of Global Justice / edited by Deen Chatterjee (Springer: 2011)

In addition, browse the range of print reference books at JA 61 on floor 4, or search the catalogue using some general keywords + dictionary, eg. Political Theory Dictionary. Supplement your use of print sources with more recent online sources.

A couple of standard reference works that are particularly useful for background information on countries and international agencies:

Europa World Year Book - held in print form at D 1.E8 on floor 2 (1963-2013)

Political Handbook of the World - held in print form at JA 51 on floor 4 (1978-)

The CIA World Factbook (online) is also a reasonably reliable source of basic information.

After looking at reference material, books are useful for establishing an understanding of a topic.

Academic book types include:
1. Introductory textbooks
These are often referred to on your reading lists and you can find a great selection in the Student Collection on Floor 1, as well as online

2. Short books
These have become popular in recent years, as they are cheaper & faster to publish, often deal with contemporary topics that are appealing to students, and are quicker to read! The Library has purchased the Cambridge Elements series available through Cambridge Core, which is particularly good for Politics & IR. We also have access to the Oxford Very Short Introductions series, which cover all subject areas. 

3. Handbooks
These can be highly useful, as they summarise research across a broad subject area and its subfields. A very useful resource are the Oxford Handbooks in Political Science that the Library has purchased access to. You can cross-search them for the topic you are interested in. The Library has also purchased the Elgar Handbooks in Politics & Public Policy. Many others are available from publishers including Routledge, SAGE, Wiley, Springer Palgrave, etc. To find them, use keyword "handbook" in library search and a few general keywords on your topic area.

4. Other academic books
As well as individual print and ebook titles, the library has access to the following ebook collections:

Oxford Scholarship Online collection of ebooks in Politics & other subjects.

Note also the growing number of open access titles published on the well-known e-International Relations website.

Individual book titles from these publishers are listed in library search, but searching on the publisher platform enables you to do a more detailed search for specific content. 

The library search does include the contents/chapter details of some books. Google Books or Amazon Books can be helpful in finding out the contents details of specific books. Browsing the library shelves is a good way of finding relevant material, as books on similar topics are shelved together. A summary of the classification is given below.