Hege Library & Learning Technologies

Political Science

Find political science academic research resources owned by the Hege Library, and links to other helpful tools.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia can be very useful for giving an introduction to or an overview of a topic, helping to develop keywords for use in your research using library databases, and can even point you towards other sources (check the references listed at the bottom of the article) but many scholars don't consider Wikipedia a credible source for their own or their students' research. The following video explains why:

Evaluating Web Sources

Consider the following when evaluating information as a possible source for your research:


Authority    

  • Who is the author? Check for “About,” “Bio,” “Background” or other links. The information may be presented by an organization (government, nonprofit, business, etc.), cited as a corporate author using full organization name.
  • What are their credentials, and are those credentials relevant to the topic?
  • What is the domain of the website? Government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sources are generally considered more authoritative than commercial (.com) or organizational (.org) sources. Many .orgs do belong to nonprofit, research, or nongovernmental organizations, but be sure to evaluate the content.

Bias    

  • If the author is an individual a group of individuals, what are their affiliations? Do they work for a government agency, academic institution, political organization, or company?
  • If they are affiliated with an organization, or are a corporate author, is there a possible profit, political, or other motive or bias that might influence the information provided?

Currency    

  • Consider your topic. Information for the sciences and social sciences usually needs to be more current, often within the last 10 or even 5 years. 
  • Check for a date on the published item itself. If this isn't available, check for the copyright date of the site, usually at the bottom of the page.
  • Does the site look well-maintained? Do the links function?

Chicago Citation Guide

For Chicago Style citations, please consult the Chicago Manual of Style or A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations in the library catalog, and we recommend the Purdue OWL online guide.

Tutorial Videos from Atomic Learning (log in with your Guilford credentials):

See the full Chicago/Turabian tutorial here.

Turabian Citation Guide

Differences between Chicago & Turabian Citation Styles:

Chicago and Turabian Styles are nearly identical. Essentially Turabian aims to simplify some of the aspects of Chicago for students writing research papers not intended for publication. 

The most important difference between Chicago and Turabian Style is the numbering system for notes.

Chicago uses a number in parentheses followed by a period, a space and then the source information (1. Chicago Manual of Style).

Turabian utilizes superscript¹ in the text of the paper and in the footnotes. The superscript number is followed by the source information (¹Turabian Style).

Like Chicago Style, Turabian utilizes different citation systems (Author-Date or Notes-Bibliography) and you should check your assignment instructions to determine which system your instructor wants you to utilize.  For a paper written for the humanities you will most likely utilize Notes-Bibliography and for most other disciplines (particularly the sciences) you would typically use the Author-Date system.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Guilford defines plagiarism broadly as presenting the interpretations, wording, images or original conceptions of others as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgment. Individual faculty members determine what constitutes “appropriate acknowledgment” within the context of their courses, either by specifically stating requirements or by acknowledging the standard practice within a given discipline. The charge of plagiarism applies to any and all academic work whether done inside or outside of the classroom and whether submitted as a rough draft or a final product (Guilford College Academic Honor Code, Office of the Academic Dean).

The resources below instruct your use of others' work and ideas:

  • Last Updated: Dec 11, 2024 9:44 AM
  • URL: https://library.guilford.edu/psci
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