Day 14: Finding Sources Daniel J. Mallinson School of Public Affairs Penn State Harrisburg [email protected] PUBPL 304 Mallinson Day 14 September 22, 2017 1 / 12
Sep 12, 2020
Day 14: Finding Sources
Daniel J. Mallinson
School of Public AffairsPenn State [email protected]
PUBPL 304
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Road map
Discuss finding research, beyond the library
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Opening Question
Think about your policy topic for this class. How wouldyou go about finding research on that topic? Wheremight you look?
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Scholarly Research
Figure: “Logo of Google Scholar” by Google, Public Domain
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Scholarly Research
Figure: Screenshot
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What About Policy Research?
Who are other producers of policy research? How do wefind them?
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Government
Official Research
Congressional Research Service
EveryCRSReport.com
Government Accountability Office
Offices of the Inspector General
National Archives
data.gov
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Think Tanks
Research with a perspective
50 Top Think Tanks
New America
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Interest Groups
LOTS of them! Can be hard to find.
A Place to Start:
Vote Smart Lists
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Non-Profits
Private foundationssSupports lots of policy-related research
Pew Charitable Trusts
Robert Wood Johnson (Healthcare)
Russell Sage
Mathematica Policy Research
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
MacArthur Foundation
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Evaluating Research
Our topic for next Friday!
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Homework
1 Use Google Scholar to search for research on your topic. Firstsearch the broad topic and report how many sources (i.e., “hits”)you get. Then explain your process for narrowing down toresearch that is highly relevant to your topic. Be sure to reporthow the number of sources changes throughout your process.
2 Find and report on two different sources of non-peer reviewedresearch (i.e., government, think tanks, interest groups, etcs)that is relevant to your topic. Report how you searched for thesesources.
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