The International Encyclopedia of Political Science, a new online and print product by Sage Publications reviewed here in its online version, provides users with a rich resource of political science concepts, theories and methodology. Three internationally renowned academics act as the main editorial board. An astonishingly comprehensive list of contributors, primarily from academic and research institutes across the globe, attest to the breadth of knowledge and viewpoints which have been drawn upon to create this compendium. This product was developed in partnership with the International Political Science Association.
Sage has constructed this resource utilizing the same functionality and ease of use found in other of the company's online products recently reviewed in these columns such as the Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief (Pennel and Slater, 2011) (RR 2011/359). Political concepts and theories, ideologies and perspectives are explored in varying degrees of detail. Entries within the encyclopedia can be accessed by browsing or searching. Content can be browsed in three ways, through the Readers Guide, the A‐Z Index, and the Subject Index. An advanced search function is also available.
The Readers Guide browse feature divides the contents of the database into 21 thematic groupings, the largest of which is Comparative politics, theory and methods. Other themes include such topics as Case and area studies, Peace, war and conflict resolution, and Decision making in democracies. Placing the cursor over a theme reveals theme subcategories. Some subthemes appear in more than one thematic category. The thematic grouping religion has seventeen subcategories including Buddhism, Islam and Genocide, which appears under other theme groupings. The theorists theme provides only ten individual entries including Max Weber and Immanuel Kant. Other prominent political science figures are referred to within the context of topical entries.
The A‐Z index provides an alphabetical listing of entries which users can browse, jump to by specific letter or search. The Subject Index, similar to the Readers Guide, contains a list of main topics with an indented list of subcategories. Clicking on a subcategory leads the user to an “in context” view of the result.
The advanced search function allows users to narrow their search by selected elements, including title, headline, text, sidebars, contributors, further readings, see also listings, or multimedia transcripts as well as by front matter and back matter. At the result level users can use the left menu bar to search within results. Option boxes allow further narrowing of results by images, tables, multimedia, and sidebar. Another very useful feature is the ability of users to expand searches to include other Sage products (within their subscription coverage).
Individual entries cover an extremely wide variety of subject matter. Concepts such as federalism are explored in terms of defining principles and characteristics; then examined by pre and post 1945 theoretical trends and from several different geopolitical perspectives. Similarly, the topic of democracy is examined as an overall concept followed by Chinese, Middle East and Russian perspectives. This is very useful, and I believe, very unusual for an encyclopedic product. Some institutions such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization have separate entries; however, individual countries do not. A search for Somalia, for instance, will bring up listings under entries such as Warlords, Sanctions, Intervention and War and Peace. Search terms are bolded within the resulting entries for easy identification. Students will find the thematic categories of qualitative and quantitative methods particularly useful. Methods of data collection, measurement and analysis are well covered with detailed entries on complex concepts such as Causal Explanations, Crisp‐set, and Fuzzy‐set. Diagrams and tables within entries can be enlarged for better viewing.
Each entry is accompanied by the author's name, a further reading list and a bibliographic citation which automatically inserts the date accessed into the citation. Output options include enlarge print, print, download, or cite. Citing style options include APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard styles. Seven download options allow users to export results to a variety of popular bibliographic citation tools including Refworks, Zotera, EndNote, proCite, Reference Manager, BibTex, and Medlars
This online resource is geared towards the educational sector. Once the user understands that this resource does not focus on people, places and events, rather it explores the concepts behind events and activities, the value of the product becomes apparent. It will be particularly well suited for undergraduate and graduate level students. The readability of most entries will make it an invaluable tool for learning and understanding political science theories and concepts.
