LibGuides: Public Affairs (MPA): Grey Literature & Think Tanks

CapitalWords.org

For every day Congress is in session, Capitol Words visualizes the most frequently used words in the Congressional Record, giving you an at-a-glance view of which issues lawmakers address on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

Grey Literature

Grey literature exists outside of and is uncontrolled by the usual academic and commercial publishers. It includes conference proceedings, occasional and working papers, policy papers and briefs, hearings, reports, and more.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
- This link opens in a new window
1991-present; designed to be the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. Includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, books, journals, policy briefs, and proceedings from conferences.
PAIS Index
- This link opens in a new window
1914-present; includes periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, and Internet resources. Subjects include politics, public policy, government, international relations, law and ethics, human rights, economics, business, finance, and other social sciences.
Policy File Index
- This link opens in a new window
1900-present; Policy File Index is a unique resource for U.S. public policy research in that it grants users access to timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centres, advocacy groups, and other entities. Over 75 public policy topics are covered, from foreign policy to domestic policy. The majority of Policy File Index records link directly to the full-text report, paper, document, or other source.

IssueLab
IssueLab gathers, indexes, and shares the collective intelligence of the social sector... [providing] free access to thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, and issue briefs addressing some of the world's most pressing social problems." From the Foundation Center.
PolicyArchive
A digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. It makes use of the power, efficiency, and economy of modern Internet technology to collect and disseminate summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material of think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research.
NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Current and historical; NBER is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. Provides data sets about macroeconomics, industry, international trade, individual income and expenditure data, etc.
NBER Working Papers
The NBER working paper series includes over 1000 papers each year, authored by leading research economists, on a wide variety of topics. These papers are circulated prior to publication for comment and discussion. The working paper series began in 1973, and now includes more than 24,000 papers.

Think Tanks on the Web

Think Tank Search
A Google Custom Search for think tanks from the Kennedy School at Harvard.

Open Think Tank Directory
A global collection of think tanks and related organisations

Policy Archive
Collects and archives public policy research publications from US think tanks.

NIRA World Directory of Think Tanks
Indexed by country with descriptions, contact information, and links to organizations' website

WWW Virtual Library: Research Institutes-- list of think tank-related links and resources maintained by Wayne Selcher at Elizabethtown College

Chamber of the National Assembly, South Africa

February 2011. Photo by Michael Hebb, Flickr.