Guides: STIA 3196: Environmental Change: Engaging the Public with Effective Science Writing: Policy

Key Policy Databases

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.
ProQuest Political Science Database This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Political Science covers the literature of political science and international relations, including such topics as comparative politics, political economy, international development, environmental policy, and hundreds of related topics.
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.
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.

ECOLEX
A database on environmental law: includes information on treaties, international law, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature.

Using Think Tank Research

For advice on using think tank reports in your research, see this tip sheet.

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.
Apolitical
Analysis & reporting on policy innovations, used by civil servants in 140+ countries. Strong international coverage. A good place to look for policy alternatives & their implementations. Note: you will need to create a (free) account.