Policy Research: Evaluating Policy Impact
Get Started Evaluating
As discussed on the What is Policy? page, public policy is circular. As such, any evaluation of a policy's impact will need to reflect this circular nature. Look for:
- resources produced by advocacy organizations, think tanks, and watchdog groups. These may provide detailed analysis of policies and their impacts.
- Evaluative reports and statistics produced by government bodies that may have analyzed policy; and, finally,
- scholarly articles reporting research on policies, their impact, and implementations.
Advocacy Search Engines
- American Policy DirectoryAnalysis and advocacy on a wide range of topics derived from think-tanks and advocacy organization across the United States.
- Oregon Policy DirectoryUniversity of Oregon's Oregon Policy Directory points to numerous sites regarding Oregon Policy.
- IssueLabContains free access to case studies, evaluations, white papers, annual reports, issue briefs, and numerous other materials addressing the world's social problems that include aging, crime and safety, government reports, nonprofit and philanthropy, race and ethnicity, and transportation.
- Policy CommonsProvides indexed access to government grey literature and reports from national and international governmental agencies.
- The Policy Surveillance Program"LawAtlas.org is the flagship policy surveillance website of the Center for Public Health Law Research (CPHLR) at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. Datasets on LawAtlas.org use policy surveillance to capture the characteristics of laws and policies of public health significance. "
Search across Federal and State Websites
- USA.govThe USA.gov website allows you to search multiple federal and state agency website and reports.
- United States Government Accountability OfficeThe investigative arm of Congress. GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its Constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO examines the use of public funds, evaluates federal programs and activities, and provides analyses, options, recommendations, and other assistance to help the Congress make effective oversight, policy, and funding decisions.
Scholarly Articles
- PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service)Covers public affairs, public and social policy, and international relations. Includes national and international journal articles, books, government documents, statistics, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, microfiche, and pertinent web sites.
- Worldwide Political Science AbstractsIndexes articles related to political institutions, international law and politics, public policy, public administration, political theory, and political economics. Indexes sources from 1975 to the present.
Data and Statistics
- PolicyMap
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Provides mapping, data, and analytics tools on U.S. demographics, real estate, health, jobs, education, and more topics. Mapping allows for multiple layers and editable data ranges. - Social Explorer
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Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to access current and historical U.S. Census data and demographic information. It contains maps, profile reports, data elements, and variables.
LiberGov Search
LiberGov Search is a custom Google Search created by Stanford University Libraries. It searches freely available, public domain government information from legislative and legislators' websites, social media accounts, NGOs, and news sources. For a full list of its contents visit LiberGov's documentation.