Research Guides: Public Policy Databases: Welcome

Need Help?

Schedule a time to talk with Amanda Binder, librarian for History, Political Science/MPA, and Latin American Studies!

CONNECT: Schedule an appointment with me through Connect (undergraduates only)
EMAIL: Email me at abinder3@uncc.edu with dates/times that work for you
FORM: Use the Research Consultation Request form

You can also use our CHAT service to get help from other librarians. Meetings can be by phone or online using Google Meet.

Public Policy Databases

Academic Search Complete
A great database to get started with for your research on any topic. Use it to search for articles from scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals, newspapers, and magazines.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.

From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, pre-print repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

To configure your Google Scholar account follow these steps:
1. Go to scholar.google.com
2. Find the menu located in the top left corner and click on "Settings"
3. Select "Library links"
4. Type "University of North Carolina Charlotte"
5. Select both options
6. Type "Worldcat"
7. Select the option
8. Select "Save"
ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Archive of social and political science data and datasets. Reading and manipulation of this data may require statistical software such as SPSS, SAS, Stata, or R.
iPOLL Databank
The most comprehensive, up-to-date resource for US public opinion poll data.
JSTOR
Provides access to academic journals and books covering a wide range of disciplines; it also includes some limited primary source collections.
PAIS International
This resource covers issues in the public debate through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources. PAIS Archive is included in this database and includes the content from printed volumes published 1915-1976.
ScienceDirect
Literature across all fields of science and social science. Comprehensive coverage of literature across all fields of science and social science. Provides access to more than 850 of Elsevier's primary research journals, which focus on scientific, medical, biomedical and technical areas.
SimplyAnalytics
SimplyMap is a web-based mapping application that lets users quickly create professional-quality thematic maps, tables, and reports using powerful demographic, business, and marketing data. Create a personal account, if you want save your work. Otherwise sign in as a Guest. (includes COVID-19 data)
Web of Science
This multidisciplinary database includes a citation mapping feature that allows you to track research across time, including almost 1.7 billion cited references allowing for comprehensive searches.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science, international relations, law, public administration, and public policy.

Newspaper Databases

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic)
Source for legal research, business, news, etc. Search across global news sources, access federal and state legal cases, find company information, and more.
NewsBank
Full-text newspaper articles covering international, national, and local news. Includes the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Charlotte Observer, and many others.
Newspaper Source Plus
Provides cover-to-cover full text for 149 national & international newspapers,, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Times (London), and more. Also includes television and radio news transcripts from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, National Public Radio (NPR), etc.
US Newsstream
Provides access to newspapers, news websites, and blogs from leading publishers throughout the world.