Where should you begin your search? Hard to say, but use the list of good sites below. Let's say you start at Academic Search Complete. When you go there, you will see a page with search fields. So you can enter "Mugabe" and "corruption" (without the quotes) in the same field. Then click on "search."
Unfortunately, this returns only one result, an article in Time magazine. So you go back to the database page and try something else, such as JSTOR. This database has older articles, so you won't find terribly current sources. The search with the terms above yields 17 results - much better, but not great. Notice that the first one is from Foreign Affairs magazine, an excellent source. And there's a PDF of the article!
So we move on to PAIS International and enter Mugabe in the first field, then go to the field underneath and enter corruption. Why? Because this is the way to search on PAIS for two separate terms (Mugabe + corruption). And voila! 159 results! And many of them have PDFs!
A search on Project Muse with the same terms (mugabe in one field and corruption in the field below it) yields similarly impressive and recent results in journals such as the "SAIS Review" and "The Journal of Democracy."
Why do a search in the scholarly databases? Because these are the most serious and painstakingly-researched articles, by professors or journalists or others who are experts in their fields. If you can't find enough information using the links on our class blog, then go to the Skidmore database page.
I recommend these databases:
- Academic search complete
- CQ global research
- Country watch
- EBSCO Host (huge database!)
- JSTOR (very large, has PDFs)
- Lexis Nexis Academic
- PAIS International
- Political Handbook of the World (not scholarly articles, but good general site)
- Project Muse (good database)
