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American politics & government: Think tanks, policy writing, preprints
Think tanks, policy papers, "gray literature"
Professors and other people with advanced academic degrees present their expertise in other settings beside peer-reviewed journals and scholarly books. They may produce reports and analyses for governments, non-profit organizations, corporations, and all sorts of research institutes; they also distribute research for comment at academic conferences. While these sources are often created with academic rigor, they commonly do not go through full peer review before publication. Nonetheless, especially regarding recent events and hot topics in politics and policy, such "gray literature" can be important bridges between journalism and traditional academic publications.
- Policy CommonsPolicy Commons is a global portal to "gray literature" -- research publications such as reports, briefs, analyses, working papers, and datasets done to academic standards but not peer-reviewed -- produced by university research centers, "think tanks," consultancies, governments from national to local, inter- and non-governmental agencies, interest groups, and more. Often problem-centered and solution-oriented, these publications can fill the gap between journalism and traditional scholarly publications.
- Think Tank Search (Harvard)Think Tank Search is a custom Google search of over 670 institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. Inclusion is based upon the relevancy of subject area to research and teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the availability of the think tank’s research in full-text on the website, and the think tank’s reputation and influence upon policy making. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks. Site includes browseable directory of the think tanks, US and non-US as well as guidance on evaluating think tank research.
- American Policy DirectoryInterest- and advocacy groups often issue reports and and position papers on public policies. This list of links to such groups is organized by broad theme, then by names of organizations addressing that domain. From the University of Oregon Libraries.
- Social Systems Evidence SSE is a "comprehensive, continuously updated repository of syntheses of research evidence about the programs, services and products available in a broad range of government sectors and program areas... as well as the governance, financial and delivery arrangements within which these programs, services and products are provided, and the implementation strategies that can help to ensure that these programs, services and products get to those who need them. " Joint initiative of McMaster University in Canada and the Monash University in Australia.
- IssueLab Free access to thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, issue briefs, and other kinds of "gray literature" research into social problems, primarily in the US. Provided by Candid, a service of the Foundation Center, to "gather, index, and share the collective intelligence of the social sector," IssueLab emphasizes research funded by philanthropic institutions.
- Find Policy Organized into broad topical areas, Find Policy is a specialized search engine specifically for outputs of selected, leading policy research organizations that work in each area. More Search option allows searching regarding particular countries and global regions.
- Security Studies from JSTOR Security Studies is a topical collection that “looks at security studies through a broad lens, encompassing research on international security and peace and conflict studies from all corners of the globe “ It includes content drawn from journals and ebooks already in JSTOR and adds research reports and periodicals added specifically for this collection. Browseable by topic and searchable (including image searching). Bookmark this link. JSTOR's topical collections like this can be difficult to find in the regular JSTOR interface. For more about this collection, including basic JSTOR tips and tricks, see JSTOR’s Security Studies libguide.
- Homeland Security Digital Library HSDL is a collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and disaster management from a wide variety of sources. These include documents from federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, professional organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and international governing bodies. 1941-present. HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Create an individual account with your VT email address if you wish to access additional HSDL researcher content. See also Essays in HSDL's On the Homefront blog and Greta's Gouge weekly current-awareness posting of papers and articles pertaining to conflict, national security, and defense; arranged by source. Compiled by Greta Marlatt, HSDL content manager at US Naval Postgraduate School.
- Open Think Tank Directory A global collection of more than 3,000 think tanks and related organizations. Menus help you focus by region, country, and/or topic; also searchable.
Preprints, conference proceedings
- OSF PreprintsSearch across more than 25 open access preprint repositories containing more than 2 million articles and conference papers. Strong STEM coverage, but fields also include social sciences, law, business, architecture, arts and humanities.
- Social Science Research NetworkSocial Science Research Network indexes citation, abstracts, and some full text of pre-prints and other scholarly research papers.
- APSA Preprints APSA Preprints is a free-to-access prepublication platform dedicated to working papers, posters, and other early research outputs in political science and related disciplines. Preprints had not undergone peer review when submitted to APSA Preprints, though versions may subsequently have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. It was developed through a collaboration of the American Political Science Association and Cambridge University Press and built on the "Cambridge Open Engage" platform.