Find resources that will help you understand specific policy areas.
Policy / Issue Summary Sources
Use the following resources to learn more about the evolution of your policy area of interest.
- Sage KnowledgeSearches all library subscriptions from Sage Publishing including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.
- Oxford Handbooks OnlineOxford Handbooks contain peer-reviewed scholarly review articles in Archaeology, Business and Management, Classical Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics and Finance, History, Law, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion. Included are classic works of scholarship along with newly-published works. Each handbook offers a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study. Individual articles by leading scholars review key issues and major debates, and discuss how those debates might evolve.
Use these resources to locate topic-level insight across sources. These resources can give you a good look at the current state of affairs regarding your policy / issue area.
- Opposing Viewpoints in ContextFind articles on current issues, including viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, magazine and newspaper articles.
- CQ Press Library This link opens in a new windowIn the CQ Press Library, search or browse resources on American government, current affairs, history, politics, public policy, and data analysis for the social sciences.
- CQ ResearcherCQ Researcher provides in-depth coverage of important issues of the day. Reports are written by experienced journalists, footnoted, and professionally fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con feature, plus resources for additional research. Shorter "Hot Topics" articles provide a solid introduction to subjects in demand.
- Facts on FileA weekly world news digest with of important news stories, providing concise profiles of state, national, and international events; Includes a detailed name and subject index. Location(s): TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto D410 .F14x
Find Policy Reports related your your topic
- CIVIOSAn initiative of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Civios offers short digital materials to inform public policy discussions that can be used by policymakers, practitioners and the public.
- Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)Comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. Publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.
- PAIS Index (Political Science and Public Policy)PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) searches journals and other sources on issues of political science and public policy. This includes government, politics, international relations, human rights and more.
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) ReportsCRS reports provide Congress with both anticipatory and on-demand research and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. All reports adhere to the core values of CRS; they are authoritative, objective and nonpartisan. Reports range in length from several pages to more than one-hundred pages and cover the full breadth of topics of interest to Congress. Currently, only the last year of reports is available freely through this website. See ProQuest Congressional below for full coverage of CRS reports.
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) ReportsCRS reports provide Congress with both anticipatory and on-demand research and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. All reports adhere to the core values of CRS; they are authoritative, objective and nonpartisan. Reports range in length from several pages to more than one-hundred pages and cover the full breadth of topics of interest to Congress. Currently, only the last year of reports is available freely through this website. See ProQuest Congressional below for full coverage of CRS reports.
Selected Sources for Scholarly Literature
- Annual ReviewsThe Annual Reviews collection offers comprehensive, timely critical reviews written by leading scientists. This collection provides the worldwide scientific community with a useful and intelligent synthesis of the primary research literature for a broad spectrum of disciplines. Annual Reviews volumes are published each year for 40 focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences including Economics and Financial Economics.
- Worldwide Political Science AbstractsThe database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration & public policy from1975 to the present.
- Business Source PremierFind business articles from journals and magazines in marketing, management, information technology, operations, human resources, accounting, finance and economics dating back to 1965.
- PubMedSearches MEDLINE, which is the primary source of journal articles for the health sciences (fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, public health, health care systems, and basic sciences). Coverage is from the 1940s to the present. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- Agricultural & Environmental Science DatabaseSearch journals and literature on agriculture, pollution, animals, environment, policy, natural resources, water issues and more. Searches tools like AGRICOLA, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM), and Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases.
- Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
Learn about nonprofit and for-profit organizations
- GuideStar: The National Database of Nonprofit OrganizationsInformation on nonprofit organizations in the United States that register with the Internal Revenue Service. Includes financial information, mission, programs, board of directories and historical 990 tax returns filed with the IRS with more detail about expenditures and revenue. Search for nonprofits by location, size, and types of services.
- Foundation Directory OnlineFind grant makers, companies, grants or IRS 990 tax returns for U.S. organizations. Profiles of grant makers mission, analysis of expenses and revenue and other information. The Foundation Directory includes the publication Philanthropy News, current RFPs for grants, and literature on nonprofits from various research institutes.
- Leadership Connect (formerly: Leadership Library)Leadership Connect (formerly Leadership Library) allows screening for people, companies, and organizations by type, industry, job function, geographic location, size, or keyword. Ideal for searching NGOs, government agencies, board memberships, and not-for-profit organizations.
- Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA)Directory information on U.S. and Canadian business, health care, and residential listings. Search by company name, geographic area, business type, SIC code, yellow page listing, revenue, location, number of employees or any combination of the above. In addition to address and phone number, each entry includes officer names and titles, corporate affiliation, business type and size of yellow page advertising. Toll free and fax numbers are given for some companies.
- Legis1Insightful profiles of members of congress, staff, committees, hearings, witnesses, legislation, issue areas, lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbying clients. Legis1's analytics provides unique insights into legislative effectiveness, staff turnover, staff experience, compensation, issue trends, lobbying clients and more. Limited to 5 simultaneous users.
Government / Legislative Information: Federal and State
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowThe ProQuest Congressional Research Digital Collection (CRDC) provides full-text access to more than 5,000 Congressional committee prints published from 2004 to present and more than 23,000 Congressional Research Service reports published from 2004-present. Includes citations for bills, public laws, and Statutes at Large, and analytical abstracts of the documents. Also includes links to political parties and organizations and news sources. Coverage 1789-present.
- Voxgov This link opens in a new windowSearch publications, press releases, and social media activity of U.S. government agencies and legislative unites including legislators, department chiefs, and other branches in the federal government. Social media includes Twitter feeds, YouTube videos and other output by government entities. Congressional documents such as hearings are also available.
- Legislative Insight This link opens in a new windowFind compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted United States public laws.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHuge legal search tool with full-text of legal journals, legal histories, government documents, state and federal cases, international law and includes coverage of many older legal materials. Contains the Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports (Supreme Court) back to 1754.
- National Conference of State LegislatorsNews, current events, information and analysis to support state legislatures. Bipartisan research on important public policy issues facing state governments.
Statistics and Data
- Statistical Insight This link opens in a new windowSearch statistical publications from US and state government agencies, international intergovernmental organizations, professional and trade organizations, business organizations, commercial publishers, independent research organizations, and universities.
- Sage Data This link opens in a new windowProvides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository.
- PolicyMap This link opens in a new windowPolicyMap is a web-based online data and mapping application that provides access to over 15,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs and more. Data is available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. Data comes from both public and proprietary sources.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowOffers the ability to create customized maps and reports of demographic, housing, and employment patterns throughout the United States using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
- SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new windowCreate custom maps and reports on SimplyAnalytics using extensive data on demographics, consumers, real estate, housing, employment, crime, health, and more. Data includes Nielsen Scarborough local insights and crosstabs, AGS Census, Claritas PRIZM consumer segment, MRI Simmons consumer survey data, consumer expenditures and buying power, as well as public data sources such as the US Census, American Community Survey, FBI uniform crime reports, NOAA climate data, and CDC health data.
Limited to 5 simultaneous users. "Sign in as a guest" if you do not wish to register for a free personal account. A personal account allows you to save your work.
Sources for News
- Access World NewsFull-text news from over 9,000 news sources in the U.S. and international newspapers, major wire services, and hundreds of local broadcasting outlets and blogs. There are over 100 Minnesota sources. Mostly English language news coverage with some 200 titles in Spanish, French, Afrikaans and other languages.
- WestlawNext Campus Research (Law)WestlawNext Campus Research provides access to legal materials, including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and the various state governments. It includes law journals, the American Jurisprudence encyclopedia, the American Law Reports, and news content.
- Ethnic NewsWatchEthnic NewsWatch is a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press from 1990, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.
- Minneapolis Star Tribune (1986 to present) This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from the recent issues of the Star Tribune. Does not include wire stories, ads, photos, or other non-textual article content from the paper. (via ProQuest Newsstream). Note: There is a one-day embargo on content; article counts for recent issues may be initially incomplete, but increase as the publisher provides access to finalized print content in daily feeds to ProQuest.
- New York Times (1980 to present) This link opens in a new windowFull-text coverage of the New York Times to present day. Does not include photos, illustrations, ads, wire stories, or other page-image level access. (via ProQuest Newsstream)
- Economist, 1997-currentAccess to "The Economist" from July 1997 to the most recent issue.
- Financial Times (FT.com)News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, a leading global business publication. Current students, faculty, and staff must register and create personal accounts using University of Minnesota e-mail addresses at the link above.
- Facts on FileA weekly world news digest with of important news stories, providing concise profiles of state, national, and international events; Includes a detailed name and subject index. Location(s): TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto D410 .F14x
Managing your research
- Citation Managers (e.g. Zotero, EndNote Online, etc.)Citation managers are software packages used to create personalized databases of citation information and notes. They allow you to: import and organize citation information from article indexes and other sources; save links to pdfs and other documents; format citations for your papers and bibliographies using APA and many other styles; and include your own notes.
- Library workshopsLearn something new at a library workshop! Register for everything from using citation managers to finding grant funding.
Last Updated: Oct 9, 2024 9:39 AM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/PA/3001