Finding International Relations Articles in ProQuest

Click on Magazines / Journals / Indexes from the library's homepage. (If you are working from home you will have to enter student ID). Choose ProQuest. It will open in Advanced Search.

Use political science terms and concepts as subject search terms. First check the articles under the Magazines and Scholarly tabs. The Trade tab may also be useful–it includes articles in the publications of professional organizations. Many articles are full text and can be printed out instantly. Watch for the full text and PDF icons–both mean you can print the article.

Try different words for your search terms. Don't forget to try stemming: environment* will retrieve environment and environmental.

While a search using the terms “global” and “drug trade” does get you some articles, you get a better selection of articles if you notice in the suggested topics box toward the bottom of the list of retrieved articles that the phrase “drug trafficking” replaces “drug trade”. In addition, “international” retrieves more articles than “global”:

Sample search with full text articles selected from the results of the search:

The articles give you ideas for directions in which to take your topic, for example, a particular country such as Mexico or Columbia, or factors in the United States that foster trafficking such as the demand for illegal drugs.

Other useful sources

For topic searches try:

CQ Researcher http://library.spokanefalls.edu/_auth/journal.asp

Full text online brochures on topics in the news. Watch the dates of the articles, but even the older ones are good for background information.

If your topic leads you to focus on a particular country, try:

CountryWatch http://library.spokanefalls.edu/_auth/journal.asp

Snapshot of basic data on every country in the world. Updated each day with news briefs from API newswire service.

Need Assistance?

If you have difficulty finding terms for your subject that get you the kind of articles you want, get in touch with a reference librarian:

Phone: SFCC Reference 509-533-3834 or 1-800-251-1972 FAX 509-533-3144
Hours: Click to view Library Hours of Operation

Chat Online with a librarian day or night – click the Ask Us 24/7 on our homepage, in the banner at the top of the ProQuest pages, or the banner at the top of the Book and Video Catalog pages.

refdesk@spokanefalls.edu - we will usually respond with 24 hours.