Guides: GOVT 1200: The U.S. Political System: Think Tanks, Policy Orgs, Government, and NGOs

Databases of NGOs and Policy/Research Organizations

Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Indexes otherwise hard to obtain research and publications from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers. Each item includes an abstract and, where available, access to the full-text of the report and/or the homepages and electronic mail addresses of the authoring institution.
Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Policy Commons is a one-stop community platform for research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. This growing database is the world’s largest directory of policy organizations representing nearly 24,000 organizations and over 3 million publications.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
A subject guide to journals, books, pamphlets, and government publications relating to economics, social conditions, and international relations.

Think Tank Directories

Think tank watchdog organizations include: Transparify and On Think Tanks. For solid advice on using think tank analysis in your work read these journalist's tips.

Worldpress Review Online's Think Tank Directory
An alphabetical index of think tanks and research organizations.
Open Think Tank Directory
The Open Think Tank Directory captures information about more than 2700 think tanks from around the globe.
TTCSP Go To Global Think Tank Report
Annual rankings of think tanks.

Government Information

GovInfo This link opens in a new window
GovInfo replaces the Federal Digital System (FDsys) and is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO). It provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government, such as the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Congressional Record, Congressional bills, Congressional hearings and reports, and laws.
Congress.gov This link opens in a new window
formerly Thomas.gov
This resource from the Library of Congress allows users to search for: Bills, Resolutions; Activity in Congress; Congressional Record; Schedules, Calendars; Committee Information; Presidential Nominations; and Treaties, some beginning with the 93rd Congress (1973) - present. Congress.gov is usually updated the morning after a session adjourns.
Coverage dates for legislative information in Congress.gov are available here.
CQ Press Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
The online hub for all of the CQ Press products, including CQ Researcher, CQ Weekly,CQ Political Reference Suite / Online Editions.
CQ Press Political Reference Suite: Congress and the Nation (from 1945), Historic Documents Series (from 1972), Political Handbook of the World, Politics in America, Washington Information Directory, Supreme Court Yearbook (from 1989) and Vital Statistics on American Politics.

CQ Researcher: Publishes 12,000-word reports covering the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into all sides of the issues, bibliographies and more on a weekly basis. Note: There is a limit of 10 concurrent users.

CQ Weekly: Provides political and legislative news, features, trends, forecasts and congressional voting records.
CRS (Congressional Research Service) Reports This link opens in a new window
(Coverage 1916-Present): CRS serves the Congress throughout the legislative process by providing comprehensive and reliable legislative research and analysis that are timely, objective, authoritative and confidential, thereby contributing to an informed national legislature.
See also the Freely Available CRS Reports Database (2016-Present).
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
One of the premier sources for legal and political information. Full-text law journals are a major part of the database, but HeinOnline also includes deep historical collections of U.S. federal government documents.
Titles digitized include the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, bills and public laws in the Statutes at Large, the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, selected legislative histories, Supreme Court documents, Presidential documents, and more. Search the Sources of Compiled Legislative History database by Public Law or Bill number, from the 37th to the 107th Congress. The U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection has full text legislative histories on significant legislation in banking, civil rights, labor, digital rights, the USA PATRIOT act, and other selected laws.