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Subject guide for Political Science

In this subject guide you will find selected resources within the field of political science and social sciences.

You are welcome to contact us if you need help or if you have suggestions for additional information to the subject guide.

Databases and reference works

Databases and reference works for finding academic literature.

See reference works

Databases

  • Scopus 
    Extensive database, especially with peer-reviewed articles and books. Covers all subjects. In the database you can see how many citations a text has received.
  • Web of Science 
    Large database, especially with peer-reviewed articles and books. Covers all subjects. In the database you can see how many citations a text has received.
  • ProQuest - Social Sciences 
    Collection of social science databases, especially with journal articles. Part of the content is accessible.
  • Google Scholar 
    Search engine for searching scientific literature, e.g. articles, papers and preprints. The search results originate from unspecified publishers, organisations, universities etc.
  • African Journals Online - AJOL 
    Journal database with peer-reviewed English- and French-language journals published in African countries. Covers all subjects. Partial access to the articles.

Reference works

Newspapers and media

Content from Danish and foreign newspapers and media. 

See sources for newspapers and media

  • Infomedia
    Articles from Danish nationwide, regional and local newspapers, trade journals, magazines, etc. Time period varies by source. NB! Infomedia's material may not be downloaded, printed, stored, redistributed outside of Infomedia's systems or harvested via machine procedures or software.
  • Retriever
    Articles from Norwegian and Swedish nationwide, regional and local newspapers, trade journals, magazines, websites, etc. Time period varies by source. 
  • Factiva
    Access to global news from an extensive number of newspapers, newsletters, websites, company reports, etc. NB! Data mining, text mining or use of the trend analysis function is not permitted.
  • Mediestream
    Access to the Royal Danish Library's digital collections of newspapers, radio, television and radio as well as commercials. You can get extended access to the content by using the computers at some of the Royal Danish Library's addresses.
  • Svenska tidningar (Swedish digitized newspapers)
    Database with digitized Swedish newspapers from 1645 to the present day. Not all articles are accessible, but you can search the full text.
  • Norwegian digitized newspapers
    The National Library's collection of digitized Norwegian newspapers from 1763 to the present day. Not all articles are accessible, but you can search the full text.
  • Tímarit.is
    Database with access to the full text of digitized newspapers and periodicals from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. Time period varies by source.

Data and statistics

Webpages with data and statistics from Denmark and the rest of the world.

See sources for data and statistics

  • Databanken (in Danish)
    Links to data sources selected by the Department of Political Science in Aarhus. The data bank is divided according to the non-elective bachelor's subjects in Political Science and further divided according to the subject's analysis units.
  • Borgernes holdninger (in Danish)
    In the Department of Political Science's data bank, you will find a number of links to data on citizens' attitudes both nationally and internationally. NB! You can also find links to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish voter attitudes in the sections 'Danish laws, parties, elections and voters', 'Norwegian sources' and 'Swedish sources'.
  • Comparative Agendas Project
    Information and data about political agendas, e.g. parliamentary debates, bills, media etc. in several different countries. With links to the individual country projects.
  • Manifesto Project Database
    Analyzes of political parties' election programs from more than 50 countries. The project covers all free, democratic elections since 1945.
  • Rigsarkivet (The Danish National Archive)
    Collection of data and documentation from studies, e.g. within the social sciences. See selected data from the collections, e.g. The Danish values survey 1981-2017.
    See also Archives Portal Europe, which provides access to European archival institutions.
  • Statistics Denmark
    Analyzes and publications about Danish society. In addition, access to official statistics and data from StatBank Denmark.
  • Data and statistics from other countries (in Danish)
    Statistics Denmark's list with links to international organizations and statistical agencies.
  • OECD
    Portal with access to a large amount of publications and data that shed light on a variety of economic and social issues in the countries and regions of the world.
  • UN iLibrary
    Portal with publications and data from the UN's many agencies. You can also search for data at the UN Statistics Division.
  • Google Dataset Search
    Search engine to search for datasets. You search a large number of data archives/repositories.

Danish sources

Danish search databases, websites and journals where you can find sociological and political analyses, journalism and research.

See Danish sources

Search databases

  • Soeg.kb.dk
    Entry to search in the Royal Library's physical and electronic materials, i.a. articles, books, databases, journals, theses, etc. Material that you will not find in The Royal Library, you can order from other libraries.
  • Bibliotek.dk
    Common entrance to search the Danish libraries' materials, i.a. books and articles. Orders can be delivered to your local library. You must be a user in the library from where you want pick up the material from. 
  • Research Portal Denmark
    Entry to search for Danish published research, i.a. articles, books, theses, conference contributions, book chapters and reports.
  • ABA - Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv (in Danish) (The library and archives at the Workers Museum) 
    Access to find printed material about the history and culture of the Danish labor movement from approx. 1850s to today.

Websites

Journals

Danish laws, parties, elections and voters

Sources and resources about Danish legislation, the political parties and elections and voters.

See sources for Danish laws, parties, elections and voters

Legislation

Political parties

Elections and voters

Norwegian sources

Sources and resources about Norwegian legislation, parties, elections and voters as well as Norwegian search databases.

See Norwegian sources

Norwegian laws, parties, elections and voters

Norwegian search databases

  • Oria 
    Common entrance to search the materials of the National Library of Norway and the Norwegian subject and university libraries, i.a. books and articles.
  • Cristin
    Entry to search for Norwegian published research, i.a. articles, books, theses, conference contributions, book chapters and reports. The Norwegian parallel to Denmark's Research Portal.
  • NORA (in Norwegian)
    Access to search for Norwegian scientific and freely available publications, i.a. books, articles, theses, reports, theses, etc.
  • Idunn
    Database with Norwegian journals and books, e.g. within Social Studies. A large part of the content is accessible.

Swedish sources

Sources and resources on Swedish legislation, parties, elections, and voters, as well as Swedish search databases.

See Swedish sources

Legislation, parties, elections, and voters

Search databases

  • LIBRIS
    Entry point for searching materials from Swedish libraries, for example, books and articles.
  • SwePub
    Entry point for searching Swedish published research, for example, articles, books, dissertations, conference papers, book chapters, and reports. The Swedish parallel to Research Portal Denmark.

EU sources

Sources for finding publications and data about the EU.

See EU sources

  • Publications Office of the European Union
    The main access point for EU publications, data, legislation, research results, etc.
  • Find-eR
    Entry point for searching materials from the EU Commission’s libraries, for example, books, articles, EU publications, and government documents from the EU countries about the EU and European integration.
  • EUR-Lex
    Portal with access to EU legislation, the Official Journal of the EU, etc.
  • Data and statistics about the EU (in Danish)
    In the Department of Political Science’s database, you will find a number of links to data and statistics about the EU, including Eurostat.
  • Eurobarometer
    Surveys of the Europeans’ attitudes towards various topics. Data can be downloaded from the EU’s open data portal data.europa.eu.
  • EU-oplysningen (in Danish)
    The Danish Parliament’s EU information office, which answers factual questions about the EU.

Libraries within your field of study


BSS Datalab

Get help and discuss your work with data in the library’s BSS Datalab, for example, if you want to retrieve or organize data with R, Python, Nvivo, Excel, or use AI for transcription or literature search.

BA exam sets

Examples of previous BA exam sets in the compulsory bachelor courses at the Department of Political Science in Aarhus.
There is no access to the students’ exam papers.

References

Politica’s writing guide (in Danish) shows how to cite correctly. If you use texts or data that are not described in the writing guide, you must find another, unambiguous way to reference them.

Semestershelf for Political Science

On the Political Science semester shelf there are books that are being used in some of the courses at the Department of Political Science or are high in demand.
The books cannot be borrowed but are available for copying at the library. The books are marked with a green “band”.

Dictionaries

As an AU student, you have access to ordbogen.com with a range of different dictionaries, including Gyldendal’s red dictionaries.