Welcome
Welcome to the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy library dashboard. The dashboard provides quick links to the resources you need to succeed in your course. Whether you are online or on-Grounds, UVA Library services and support are available to all students.
The four categories of evidence this guide highlights below (interest group documents, academic documents, government documents, and news) are based on Prof. Andrew Pennock's The CQ Press Writing Guide for Public Policy (2019, p. 27, Table 2.1). These four kinds of documents are generally the kinds of evidence you will draw on when doing policy research.
Your Librarian
Your Librarian is Christine Slaughter
Each school/department at UVA is assigned a research librarian. 
Connect with Christine for help with your assignments. This service is available to all Batten students, and meeting with a librarian early in your research process can help you save time and get a better grade.
Christine can help with: learning how to use the Library online, brainstorming your research topic, developing your search strategy, capstone/thesis/dissertation planning, identifying relevant databases/journals for your literature reviews, tracking down resources, and citation management. Christine can meet with you in-person or online via Zoom.
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Search for interest group documents
The following databases are useful repositories of policy reports, briefs, and other documentation from think tanks, NGOs, research centers, and other policy-producing and -influencing institutions.
- Policy File Index This link opens in a new windowPolicy File Index is a unique resource for U.S. public policy research in that it grants users access to timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities. Over 75 public policy topics are covered, from foreign policy to domestic policy. The majority of Policy File Index records link directly to the full-text report, paper, document, or other source.
- Policy Commons This link opens in a new windowDatabase for public policy. Includes more than 3 million reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.
Search for academic articles and books
Academic article databases are often broken up by discipline. It helps if you know in advance what academic literature you want to search: political science, economics, psychology, education, sociology, health, science, et al. Here are links to some of the essential databases that will help you find articles in those fields; you can find databases for additional disciplines here.
- Political Science Complete This link opens in a new windowPolitical Science Complete provides nearly 340 full-text reference books and monographs and more than 44,000 full-text conference papers, which includes those from the International Political Science Association. The database also provides a subject-specific thesaurus with more than 23,500 terms to provide subject searching guidance to researchers.Subject coverage includes comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations and political theory.
- EconLit This link opens in a new windowInternational coverage of economics in journal articles, books, dissertations, book reviews.
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowSocINDEX with Full Text offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. These include abortion, criminology and criminal justice, demography, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, marriage and family, political sociology, religion, rural and urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse and other addictions, violence and many others.
Search for government documents
The following links provide quick access to some of the popular databases compiling government information, primarily U.S. congressional and legislative documents. Government documents can be complex to wade through--for additional help please consult the Batten government documents page or the Library's general government information research guide.
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowInformation by and about the U.S. Congress: documents and reports, Legislative Histories, hearings, and members and committees. Search the Congressional Record, Federal Register, Federal Regulations, The Hill, and Roll Call. Formerly LexisNexis Congressional.
- Legislative Insight This link opens in a new windowFederal legislative history service. Includes the Public Law, all versions of related bills, Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports, prints, Presidential signing statements, CRS reports, and additional background material.
- Hein Online This link opens in a new windowRetrospective, full-text .pdf coverage of hundreds of legal periodicals, U.S. Supreme Court cases, the U.S. Statutes at Large, Congressional Record, hearings and other legislative history materials, Federal Register, U.S. Attorney General opinions, U.S. treaties and agreements, Foreign and International Law, Israel Law Reports, English Reports, Hague Academy Recueil des Cours, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law collection, and the Virginia Law Weekly archive. Searchable by citation, author/title, and keyword.
Search news media
The following links are the most robust databases for searching newspapers. You can find additional news resources using the Library's news media guide.
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowThis comprehensive news collection is ideal for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Its diverse source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos. It currently contains over 9,600 sources from 160 countries.
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowCompany and business information from Dow Jones; articles from over 6,000 newspapers and periodicals plus news photographs. Select "News pages" to browse daily issues of recent newspapers from many countries; use "Search" to find older articles. Access, provided through VIVA Consortium, is limited to 70 concurrent users.
- NexisUni This link opens in a new windowNews and business information from sources around the world; book reviews, biographical, and other reference sources; U.S. Code, constitution, and court cases. Includes many newspapers. Most entries are full-text, some updated daily.