Last revised: August, 2007

Public Policy Research

Scope: This guide lists sources of information for researching public policy and the background issues involved in the development of public policy. University of Maryland at College Park faculty, staff, and students may email the librarian subject area specialist Gerri Foudy for more information.

Because of licensing agreements, some of these resources can only be used by current faculty, staff, and students of the University of Maryland, College Park. These are marked UM only.

Table of Contents

• Library Catalogs (Finding books, government documents, and more)
• Primary Sources (Legislation, regulations, and other documents)
• Secondary Sources (News, background information, analysis, etc.)
• Public Opinion Sources
• Key Players
• Research Guides
• Citation Guides

Library Catalogs (Finding books, government documents, and more)

• Search the UM Libraries catalog, for books and documents on your topic available through the UM Libraries. Start with a "words anywhere" search.
  Example: Superfund AND history
  Example: Civil Rights Act AND hearings

  You can also use the catalog to find out whether the Libraries subscribe to a particular journal. Go into the journals search (at the top of the catalog page) and do a "title beginning with search" for the journal title, NOT the article title.
  Example: Legislative Studies Quarterly

• WorldCat UM only
  Combined catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide. Items not owned by the University System of Maryland libraries can be requested online for borrowing through interlibrary loan; click on "ILL."

Primary Sources (Legislation, regulations, and other documents)

• Lexis-Nexis Congressional UM Only
  Comprehensive access to US legislative information including legislative histories and the CIS index of congressional publications from 1970 to the present, including congressional hearing testimonies. A separate index, less exhaustive, is also available for previous congressional publications (1789-1969).

• HeinOnline U.S. Statutes at Large UM Only
  Full text, 1789-2002. Browse by volume or popular name.

• HeinOnline Federal Register Library UM Only
  Full-text access to the Federal Register (1936 -), Federal Register Indexes (1939-1995), Compilation of Sections Affected (1949-2000), Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1965-2004), and the Administrative Procedure Act (1944-1946).

• WestLaw Campus Research UM only
  Full-text access to cases from the courts of all 50 states and federal courts, statutes from all 50 states and federal statutes published in the United States Code Annotated, American Jurisprudence 2d legal encyclopedia, American Law Reports, federal regulations, law reviews and legal periodicals, plus the ability to update case law using West's KeyCite system.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe UM Only
  Go into the "Legal Research" section for access to case law, codes, and regulations.

• Catalog of US Government Publications (Free resource)
  Index to government publications from 1994 to the present; some full text available.
  

• Congressional Budget Office (Free Resource)
  Provides the Congress with analyses needed for economic and budget decisions and with the information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process. Includes full-text online documents such as briefs, letters, studies, reports, technical papers, and testimony.
  Search for CBO publications.
  http://www.cbo.gov/

• General Accounting Office (GAO) Reports (Free resource)
  The GAO is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress and publishes reports, testimony, and legal decisions on a daily basis.
  Find GAO Reports.
  http://www.gao.gov/audit.htm

• GPO Access: Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (Free Resource)
  The codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html

• GPO Access: Federal Register (Free Resource)
  The official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html

• HeinOnline U.S. Supreme Court Library UM Only
  Full text: U.S. Reports, Vols. 1- (1754- ); U.S. Reports Preliminary Prints, Vols. 535- (2002- ); and U.S. Reports Slip Opinions, 2002- to date.

• HeinOnline U.S. Attorney General Opinions UM Only
  Full text, 1791 onward. Browse by volume.

• Maryland State Publications (Free Resource)
  Guide to print resources available in the Hornbake Library's Maryland Room as well as online web sites.
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/MarylandCollection/StatePubs.html

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (Free Resource)
  "In helping to formulate the President's spending plans, OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the President's Budget and with Administration policies."
  OMB Locator Service.
  http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/

• Thomas (Free Resource)
  Library of Congress site with recent legislative history sources.
  http://thomas.loc.gov/

Secondary Sources (News, background information, analysis, etc.)

Note: Also conduct research in the subject-specific literature appropriate to your topic. For example, if you are researching environmental policy, be sure to search in the appropriate environmental studies databases. In ResearchPort look under Databases by Subject, or speak with a reference librarian if you need help determining subject-specific resources.

• Congressional Quarterly Almanac 1945-
  Sessional compilation of articles from CQ Weekly, coverage of actions, votes, presidential statements, and public laws. It includes the annual CQ Vote Studies, significant bills and resolutions, key votes, and roll call votes.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: JK1.C66

• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Search Engine (Free Resource)
  The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the US Congress. It issues about 3,000 briefs, reports, short issue papers and longer position papers per year, but it does not make its reports available to the public. However, it cannot prevent members of Congress from giving them out individually and some government agencies from posting reports they find relevant. Perhaps 1000 of these reports have become available on the web.
  http://2act.org/p/576.html

• CQ Congress Collection UM Only
  Historical analysis of members of Congress, their legislative voting behavior, interest groups, and their interactions in crafting public policy. An advanced member search allows the user to search for members by various demographic fields.
  

• CQ Public Affairs Collection UM Only
  Organized by 22 key public affairs subject headings - like Environment, Health, International Affairs, National Security, and the U.S. Congress & Politics, plus a "Hot Topics" section - the CQ Public Affairs Collection features in-depth reporting on vital issues, statistical and historical analyses, historic documents and primary source materials, as well as a directory of key government, nonprofit, and private organizations in each of the major policy areas.

• CQ Researcher UM Only
  Full-text coverage of the CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Researcher publication from 1992 to the present, provides history and background information, relevant pro & con arguments, bibliographies, contact information, and outlooks on "hot topics" in current events.

• CQ Weekly UM Only
  Weekly legislative news and analysis, full text from 1983 to the present.

• National Journal's Policy Central UM Only
  Full-text, searchable database of the National Journal Group's publications (National Journal, Hotline, Congress Daily, Almanac of American Politics) plus markup reports, public opinion data, and an archive of television campaign ads with streaming audio and video.

• C-SPAN Congress Site (Free resource)
  Congressional directory, congressional votes library, and issues and legislation sections.
  http://www.c-span.org/resources/congress.asp

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe UM Only
  Mostly full-text access to US and international newspapers, journals, wire services, and news transcripts including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

• Lexis-Nexis Congressional UM Only
  Go into the "Inside Washington" section for access to Roll Call, The Hill, and Section A of the Washington Post and into the "Members" section for biographical information on individual members of Congress, including key votes, floor statements, committee assignments, financial disclosures, and campaign finance information.

• Lexis-Nexis Government Periodicals Index UM Only
  Government Periodicals Index provides detailed subject and author indexing of approximately 170 magazines and newsletters published by U.S. government agencies.

• PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International UM Only
  Index to articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories about public affairs topics from 1972 to the present.

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts UM Only
  1975 to the present. Abstracts of journal articles and dissertations from over 1,000 sources. Combined database of the former "Political Science Abstracts" and "ABC PolSci."

Public Opinion Sources

• Roper iPoll UM Only
  This databank is a comprehensive, up-to-date source for questions asked on U.S. nationwide public opinion surveys since 1935. It provides question wordings, response percentages, and full survey-level citations. In order to start using iPOLL, click "iPOLL Login" and complete the "iPOLL New User Registration" page on the website.

• Gallup Brain UM Only
  Searchable database of Gallup Poll questions and responses back to 1935, plus current Gallup Poll News Service articles and replicas of news stories and press releases linked to the survey.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe UM Only
  Go into "Reference" and click on "Polls & Surveys" for information from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Includes sources in opinion polling such as Gallup, Harris, Roper; ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC; Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

• National Journal's Policy Central UM Only
  Go into "Poll Track."

• American Public Opinion Index. Louisville, KY: Opinion Research Service, 1981 -.
  Index to opinion data contained in companion microfiche American Public Opinion Data.
  LOCATION: (Index) McKeldin Reference Stacks, (Microfiche) McKeldin Periodical Microfiche
  CALL NUMBER: (Index) HM261.A463, ((Microfiche) HM261.A4632

• Gallup Poll. New York: Random House, 1972 -.
  Gallup opinion poll summaries, 1935/1971, 1972/1977, and annual volumes from 1978 on.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: HN90.P8G35

• Harris Poll. Los Angeles: Creator's Syndicate, Inc., 1988 - .
  Issued weekly; polls on a wide range of subjects.
  LOCATION: MCK FOLIO (Latest issues in McKeldin Periodical Current Periodicals)
  CALL NUMBER: HM261.A211

• Polling the Nations UM Only
  A compilation of questions and responses from more than 12,000 national, state, local and special surveys, conducted by 700 polling organizations in the United States and 70 other countries from 1986 through the present.

Key Players

• Washington Information Directory UM only
  Contact information, descriptions, and organizational charts for over 10,000 federal, congressional, and state government offices, nongovernmental organizations, policy groups, and foundations. Ability to export contact information into letter templates and other formats, and to create your own profile of saved favorite documents, document history, and searches.

• Congressional Quarterly's Congressional Staff Directory. Annual. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
  Includes information on members, committees, staffs, and biographies.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1012.C65

• CQ Politics in America UM only
  Profiles of all the current members of the U.S. Congress. Information includes biographical data, committee assignments, election results, CQ Key Votes, interest group ratings, CQ Vote Studies, and contact information; campaign finance, partisan caucuses, standing committees; detailed descriptions of each member's congressional district as drawn after the 2000 census, including updated maps and voting trends.

• CQ Congress Collection UM Only
  Includes member biographies, voting alignments (document the number of times members or state delegations voted together on CQ Key Votes), and interest group ratings.

• CQ Public Affairs Collection UM Only
  "Provides a wide range of contact information for hundreds of government and non-profit organizations -- including short descriptions, addresses, phone and fax numbers, contact names, web sites, and email addresses. Contact information can be found by clicking on links within documents where organizations are mentioned and by using the Search screen."

• CQ Voting and Elections Collection UM Only
  Voters and Demographics sections have documents and data on voters, turnout and behavior, and modern counties and districts.

• National Journal's Policy Central UM Only
  Full-text, searchable database of the National Journal Group's publications (National Journal, Hotline, Congress Daily, Almanac of American Politics) plus markup reports, public opinion data, and an archive of television campaign ads with streaming audio and video.

• Ness, Immanuel. Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 2000.
  Includes information on group histories, current and future activities, finances, and bibliographies.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118 .N47 2000 vol. 1-2

• Political Advocacy Groups (Free Resource)
  Kathleen Fountain, a librarian at CSU-Chico, has developed a comprehensive listing of links to U.S. lobbying organizations, arranged by subject area.
  http://www.csuchico.edu/~kcfount/

• Political Science Resources: Think Tank Directory (Free Resource)
  "Think tanks" are policy research and advocacy organizations which usually have a political slant. This site from the University of Michigan Libraries gives an annotated list of links to think tank home pages. Most think tanks post research and position papers and other documents on the web.
  http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psthink.html

• Congressional Quarterly's Federal Staff Directory
  Includes information on staff in the White House, executive departments, independent agencies, quasi-official organizations, and biographies.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK6.F43

• Congressional Yellow Book: Who's Who in Congress, Including Committees and Key Staff. New York: Leadership Directories, Inc.
  Published quarterly.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: JK1010 .C68

• U.S. Government Manual (Free resource)
  "As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees."
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/index.html

• Washington Representatives. Annual. Washington, DC: Columbia Books, Inc.
  "A compilation of Washington representatives of major national associations, labor unions, governments, U.S. and foreign companies, registered foreign agents, lobbyists, lawyers, and special interest groups, together with their clients and areas of legislative and regulatory concern."
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118.D581

• Zuckerman, Edward. Almanac of Federal PACs. Hedgesville, WV: Amward Publications, Inc.
  Published every two years. Includes information about every PAC which contributed $50,000 or more to congressional candidates during election cycles.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1991 .A744

Research Guides

• Finding U.S. Government Documents in the University of Maryland Libraries
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/GOV/basic.html

• Census 2000: Finding Data Online
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/GOV/census2000.html

• Finding Congressional Hearings
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/GOV/hearings.html

• Finding Federal Legislative Information
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/legs.html

• Finding Federal Regulatory Information
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/regs.html

• Finding Federal Statistics
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/GOV/stats.html

• Finding GAO (General Accounting Office) Information
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/gaoinfo.html

• Finding U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/GOV/supreme.html

• Maryland State Publications http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/MarylandCollection/StatePubs.html

• Tapping the Government Grapevine : The User Friendly Guide to U.S. Government Information Sources
  LOCATION: Government Documents Reference
  CALL NUMBER: ZA5055.U6R63 1998

Citation Guides

• Documentation Guidelines: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications
• Reading Legal Citations

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