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Public Policy

Guide to resources for government, public policy, and public administration.

Recommended Databases

Here is a list of Databases recommended to find articles in this field. 

You may also find useful databases in Langsdale's Social Science Databases or other Databases by Subject

Search Tips

Searching databases can be tricky.  Below you'll find a few search tips that may help you find more accurate results in less time:

Use AND, OR & NOT while searching.

Example: crime AND (woman OR female) 

Use * to truncate your search

Example: Educat* will find education, educate, educated etc.

Use Subject Terms to limit your search

Example: Find a subject (the word(s) the database uses to describe what each article is about) that describes your topic.  Search using this word as a subject to find more accurate results.  In some databases, the most common subjects from your initial search will appear along the side or top of your search results.

Use a thesaurus

Example: Sometimes searching for the word "flu" won't find any results, because all articles refer to it as "influenza."  Keep a thesaurus handy and be ready to use synonyms for your keywords.

Filter your results

Example: Many databases allow searchers to limit their search results by "type" of source.  For example, in a database like Academic Search Premier, you can filter out results from scholarly journals only, or newspapers only etc.  You may also be able to limit your results by date or limit to a specific publication.  If you get too many results, filtering those results is an easy way to get a more manageable number of sources.