Getting started on a policy paper or project usually involves identifying a topic and narrowing its scope to a significant issue. Use the following sources to help find a topic, understand the issues, locate keywords, and get an overview of developments.

 
CQ Researcher
Reports on current topics of widespread interest including background information, a chronology, the current situation, future outlook and a bibliography of additional sources.

• Online - reports since 1991
• Print - recent years in Reference Collection, call number H35.E35 
• Print - older years on 2nd Floor, call number H35.E35

Online Newshour (PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer)

Documents in the News (University of Michigan)

Congressional Digest
Each issue covers a single topic. Includes extensive introductory essay and pro/con debate.
Access full text via Academic Search Premier. To limit your topic to this journal, type its name in the Publication field of the advanced search form. This publication is also available in print at the 1st Floor Periodicals area.

Congress and the Nation (Reference Collection call number KF49.C653) Covers a four year time period.

Congressional Quarterly Almanac (Reference Collection call number JK1.C66)

Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
Access full text since 1990 via Academic Search Premier.

GAO Reports (General Accounting Office)  

Academic Search Premier

A major database covering a wide range of academic subjects. Abstracts and indexing are included for over 8,000 scholarly journals and general interest magazines from 1984 to the present. Over half of the articles are available in full text.

Academic OneFile  
This database is similar to Academic Search Premier. It is a good strategy to use both databases to find additional resources.

LexisNexis Academic

LexisNexis Congressional

Oregonian (newspaper)

These journals are very useful for many public policy topics.

National Journal (via Academic search Premier)
An excellent source for national affairs. The full text of the most recent 14 days are excluded from this online version.
To limit your topic to this journal, type its name in the Publication field of the advanced search form.

National Journal's CongressDaily (most recent 2 weeks)
This newsletter, which runs between 4-6 pages per day, focuses on time-sensitive, inside-scoop stories about legislative and campaign activity on Capitol Hill and the White House. Specific events covered include what has happened earlier in the day at committee hearings, markups, and on the floor of the House and Senate, in addition to schedules of upcoming events. The briefing focuses on disclosing the backroom maneuverings that drive the public action in Congress.

JSTOR
Full text database of academic journals. Searches can be limited to political science and public policy sources by using the Advanced Search form. JSTOR excludes the most recent 5 years of all publications.

Statistical LexisNexis
This database includes links to over 800 full text documents and links to over 2,000 publications on federal agency Web sites.

Polling The Nations (1986- )
This full text source is a compilation of more than 13,000 surveys conducted by more than 700 polling organizations in the United States and more than 70 other countries.

see Selection websites listed above, and ...

U.S. Government Manual (Reference Collection call number JK421.A3)
            Shows the organizational structure of the federal government.
             online version

Almanac of American Politics (Reference Collection call number JK1012.A44)  

Oregon Bluebook (Reference Collection call number JK9031)
             Shows the organizational structure of Oregon state government.
             online version
Public Interest Profiles (Reference Collection call number JK1118.P79)
             Provides details on national groups, think tanks, community/grassroots organizations, etc.

Encyclopedia of Associations (Reference Collection call number AS 24.E73)

The APA Style Aid provides formatting, in-text citation and reference page assistance.

There is also a link to NoodleBib, a free reference page generator.

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