reviews is to be found in the Political Studies Review(these are avail-
able online).
The same problem applies to journals as to newspapers – finding
the relevant article. To some extent their titles may help – public
administration in Public Administration, etc., but serious use of
journals requires you to master the bibliographical tools available.
Examples of these are the International Political Science Abstracts
(six per annum) which index and summarise most relevant academic
journals and the annual International Bibliography of Political
Science.
OFFICIAL SOURCES
British government publications may be kept in a separate sequence
from other publications and may not be individually catalogued
alongside the book collection. This can lead students to miss very
valuable information. Most important central government publi-
cations are published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (was
HMSO now TSO, The Stationery Office) and their catalogues are a
valuable way to track down recent publications in this category.
TSO publications come in four main categories. First, Hansard the
daily record of parliamentary debates which are subsequently bound
and indexed. References to Hansard will normally refer to which
House (Commons or Lords), the Parliamentary Session (e.g. 2008/9),
possibly the date of the debate, and certainly to the ‘Column’ in
which the remark quoted is reported (each page being divided into
two columns). Debates often read better than they sounded, because
MPs can ‘correct’ Hansard’s reporting. Second, ‘Parliamentary
Papers’ which are numbered in order of publication during a session
(e.g. HC 213 2008/9) and include the reports of select committees –
these often contain interesting interviews with ministers, civil
servants, industrialists, academics and others about the workings of
government policy. Third, a series of Command Papers (i.e. issued
theoretically by command of Her Majesty), the most important of
which are White Papers stating government policy in a particular
area. Others are consultative ‘Green Papers’. Finally, the TSO issues
a host of more specialised publications by government bodies.
Unfortunately for scholars, many government publications are not
published by TSO, but by the departments or agencies concerned, and
APPENDIX: SOURCES ON POLITICS 243