Public Policy

Researching a policy or issue and unsure where to begin?  Library Search will show you results from the catalog, articles, databases, online journals and library website pages. Use it to discover books, ebooks, articles from scholarly journals as well as newspapers and magazines, datasets, maps, congressional hearings, movies, audio recordings and more. 

A common assignment is to write a policy memo (memorandum) or brief. When researching a policy topic, there are several questions to consider when thinking about where to research a topic: 

Who has a stake in this issue? Are there stakeholder organizations that may be collecting data, producing reports, advocating for policy changes, etc.?

What level of government (or institution) is implicated (federal, state, county, city, other local municipalities, school boards, etc.)?

Depending on how you answer those questions, use the page headings on the left to discover corresponding resources to search, or start with the policy databases below. 

In addition, view some resources below to help you with both how to write a policy document, as well as view examples of real-world policy documents.

Policy databases (research an issue as well as view examples of policy documents)

• Policy Commons (includes policy reports, briefs, analyses, and datasets from IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, North American City Reports)
• Overton.io (includes policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications, and working papers)
• CQ Researcher (get in-depth overviews of current issues at the national level; identify stakeholders and different policy approaches)
• CIAO (includes conference proceedings, think tank articles, some journals, and working papers on international affairs; you can filter by document source/type "policy brief")
• ProQuest Trends and Policy (view government documents, news, statistics and more, organized by policy topic; good for background research)

Resources on how to write a policy document

• The Ford School of Public Policy's Writing Center, with instructors dedicated to help you improve your policy writing
• Writing a Policy Memo (USC Libraries)
• Harvard's Kennedy School of Govt: Policy Memo Resource 
• Framing 101 (FrameWorks) understand the science of framing an issue 
• Writing Public Policy by Catherine Smith
• CQ Press Writing Guide for Public Policy
• Public Policy Writing That Matters by David Chrisinger