Library & Cultural Services: Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Studies: Policy Documents. Official Publications

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 mental health, refugees, children, etc.

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

See also the links in the sections below to specialist organisations in each field (Children, Mental Health, etc.)

Overton Policy Documents database
The University subscribes to Overton, a portal enabling detailed searches for policy documents & official publications. It links to the full text of millions of documents around the world. It also identifies academic contributions to policy-related research

Further information

Policy Commons
Highly recommended portal offering curated access to documents from over 40 000 policy organisations (think tanks, IGOs, NGOs) from around the world, with good coverage of the Global South. Excellent search and browse functionality. The Library does not subscribe to Policy Commons, but you can register for an account (use Essex email address) and perform a limited number of searches each month

Government Publications

For details of UK government publications please see the Politics subject guide

For details of official publications from the UN and other international agencies see the Law subject guide and the Politics subject guide