Research Guides: PLS 7030: Home

Summarizing and Synthesizing Articles for Literature Reviews

Consider using one or both of these worksheets to help you use the information you gather as you do research for a more polished, clear literatue review.

Summarizing articles (W)
When you read articles, it's helpful to think about them in the context of your research question, theory, and hypothesis. This worksheet is designed to help you start approaching articles in that way.
Synthesizing articles for a literature review
A literature review should help the reader understand the state of research leading up to your topic, not to provide an overview of individual articles. This worksheet is designed to help you start thinking in terms of how different sources contribute to understand the themes that influence your research.

Simple Steps to Reading Scholarly Articles
Strategies for reading academic articles.

Scholarly sources and where to find them

Stop Searching and Start Finding

QuickSearch This link opens in a new window
QuickSearch combines results from many search tools for you to review in one list. Results come from the Wright State catalog and hundreds of library databases including all of our Ebscohost databases, JSTOR, the Web of Science, and others.
Political Science Complete This link opens in a new window
Search the full-text of reference books, monographs, and conference papers including publications of the International Political Science Association.
International Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
IPSA indexes and abstracts scholarly journals in political science. Full-text may be available via Find-It.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR contains the complete digitized backfile of core scholarly journals from a broad range of academic disciplines.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Indexes research literature across a wide range of disciplines and formats. Use the library connection to gScholar to get more attached full-text articles.
Web of Science All Databases This link opens in a new window
This option will search a combination of all the available science databases produced by this publisher. The search will include familiar citation, biology, medicine, and patent databases. Once connected, review the "select a database" option for a complete list. Use this option if you are not sure which Clarivate database may offer the best results.

Data sets and where to find them

Google Datasets
Center for International Development
" CID’s three goals are: -To build an interdisciplinary network at Harvard to analyze and address the challenges of developing societies. -To improve the effectiveness of international development policies and institutions. -To educate and train the next generation of leaders in development science and practice. "
International Crisis Behavior Project
The most recent versions of the primary ICB data sets contain information for all crises occurring during the 1918-2013 period. The datasets include information on 470 international crises and 1036 crisis actors. There are 35 protracted conflicts.
Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site
"This site includes seven pages of links to on-line data resources for the serious international relations scholar... These pages are meant to include the most useful data sources on processes of international conflict and cooperation, as well as data covering international economic, environmental, political, and social data and data on similar topics for the United States."
START
START is the national consortium for the Study of Terrorism And Responses to Terrorism.
China Data Online
Formerly the China Data Center affiliated with the University of Michigan, with the goal to integrate historical, social and natural science data in a geographic information system. The relationship with U of M was terminated in October 2018 and China Data Online was created from the former CDC. Note that this no longer has an institutional affiliation.
Making Identity Count
A constructivist, intersubjective database of national identities that will become a key source for International Relations scholars who wish to include constructivist arguments in their scholarship. The project’s ultimate aim is a database of all great power identities from 1810 to the present.

Primary Sources and where to find them

Primary sources are original documents created at the time of an event. These can include, among other sources, speeches, interviews, government documents, and press releases. In addition to the resources listed below, check the websites of governments or other entities you're researching for their statements and position papers. Also look for interviews and other sources that provide original information.

Government Documents
Government documents are indexed by subject in the Libraries' catalog. To find the documents, run a keyword search on your topic and look for materials that indicate they are from the US Superintendent of Documents or the US GPO (Government Printing Office). Watch this short video for an example.
Special Collections & Archives
Search our Special Collections & Archives site for primary resources and a historic perspective on your topic - develop into a great opening story.

Other resources

Citing Your Sources
Research guide that offers citation help for various formats. Includes links to online guides, including Purdue's OWL.

Sage Reference This link opens in a new window
Search and read entries from over one hundred social science and science specialized reference encyclopedias published by Sage.