Library & Cultural Services: Sociology: Think Tanks. Policy Research

Think Tanks. Policy Research

The research & publications of reputable think tanks, NGOs, and policy organisations, is often an important complement to academic literature (books and journal articles), especially for research topics that have policy dimensions relating to health, crime, social policy, education, etc.

Especially useful are the main portals to the output of these organisations: Overton Policy Documents; Harvard Think Tank Search; Policy Commons

For the UK, see also the list of think tanks & research organisations on the Politics subject guide

Areas of Research Interest
Developed by UKRI, Overton & the UK government. Links academic researchers with topics & issues that the government is interested in.
Centre for Social Justice
Independent UK think tank, offering full text access to its publications on a range of social issues.
DEMOS
"The think tank for everyday democracy". Full-text of most of its publications are available.
Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)
UK funding body for academic research across the social sciences. Search website for current & historical research projects and associated publications
Fabian Society
Venerable left-leaning think tank, aligned with the Labour Party. Extensive Fabian Society Online Archive of its publications is maintained by LSE, including the majority of Fabian Tracts 1884-1997.
Harvard Kennedy School Think Tank Search
Powerful but basic tool, searches across 1200 US & international think tanks for publications & more
Institute for Social & Economic Research (ISER) University of Essex
NatCen Social Research
A leading UK centre for independent social research. Over 50 years’ experience of researching with society on behalf of government & charities

Overton Policy Documents database
Overton is a portal enabling detailed searches for policy documents. It’s a huge database with records for nearly 6 million documents and links to the full text. It also identifies academic contributions to policy-related research, so can be used to demonstrate impact of academic publications.

Policy Commons
Portal offering curated access to documents from over 20 000 policy organisations (IGOs and NGOs) from around the world. Good coverage of Africa, and improving for Asia