Web-sites of Interest to Students and Researchers

SFU web pages of interest
Home Page
Latin American Studies Programme
Political Science Dept
Development Group -offers an MA certificate in development studies (on top of a regular MA)
Graduate Studies Office -check out along with above page for grad entrance rules and requirements

Introduction to Analytical Methods
See my textbook introduction to analysis in the context of Latin American studies. It will be useful to any social science student.

Research Tips
Do NOT rely solely on free on-line sources for your research. Students must consult books as well
as subscription articles, in which almost all serious academic research still takes place. For students,
books are by far the primary option, as they tend to be geared towards a wide audience and take a broad
range of issues. Articles tend to be far more specialized and each journal's orientation differs. Thus,
students will not recognize the subtle differences in journals which can be crucial to an analysis. Only
after completing a proper academic literature review should you supplement with on-line sources.

Do NOT rely solely on a quick index search of one article database. Indexers' knowledge on complex
subject matters is necessarily limited. Look for call numbers, and rely on bibliographies to piece together
the network of researchers working in a particular area.

Remember, if you miss crucial information, you will have a foundational weakness and your analysis will
not stand up to basic scrutiny. Given the mountains of information available, you really have to be clear
on what particular question you want to answer.

Key resources through SFU's library:
- Reference librarians- are excellent
- Latin American database- current news, translated
- Economist Intelligence Unit reports- good overviews of economies by country
- Global Market Insights Database- by Euromoney, sometimes has sectoral data
- Economia- key economics journal on LA
- Latin American Research Review
- Latin American Politics and Society
- Key article databases: Academic Search FullText Elite; ABI/Inform; Project Muse
- Key statistical databases: UN Common Database, World Development Indicators, IMF data

Good Free Sources of Economic and Political Data on Development
CEPAL - UN Economic Commission on Latin America, also a good source of stats
IDB - Inter-American Development Bank
World Bank
Eldis -great gateway to development project information, run by U Sussex
LANIC - great portal to LA information, incl. links to govt agencies and newspapers
LASA - Latin American Studies Association- premier academic organization, has conference papers
Political Database of the Americas - free voting statistics on LA countries
Oxford Latin America Economic Database - best source of historical eco stats on LA
Google Scholar - you can often find good works in progress here, esp. helpful for foreign language scholars

Newspapers
Washington Post - excellent source of international news
New York Times - most comprehensive source of international news
Financial Times - best financial news service
LatinFinance
LatinTrade
AmericaEconomia

Other
Fair Trade Resources- check out the Bibliography link

Media Yes, there is intelligent discussion in the media- you just have to look for it.
Charlie Rose Show, weeknights 9:30-10:30 PBS
Lehrer Newshour, weeknights, 6:00-7:00 PBS
Frontline, Thursdays, 9:00-10:00 PBS
National Public radio, you can listen to it on www.npr.org