Library Research Guides: CLSC / PSYC 300: Develop a Public Policy Proposal

Assignment Details

Develop a public policy proposal on some aspect of decision-making.

Write for a lay audience with the power to implement your policy proposal
Think of a target organization that would implement the proposal
Find a resource that will provide relevant background (e.g. statistics) indicating a need for a solution
Include at least three outside sources in your literature review that were not discussed in class
Outside sources should be empirical journal articles – not review articles, book chapters, books, or dissertations
You can include review articles in your literature review but they will not count towards the three outside sources

There are many federal (and international) agencies that provide statistics you might use to build a case for your proposal.

Our statistics guide has links to many sources for you to explore.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search engine for scholarly literature in all disciplines; link to fulltext articles in Wellesley-licensed databases.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social sciences (1898-present) physical & life sciences (1899 to present), and arts & humanities (1975 to present). Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Collection of key scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences & natural sciences, starting from the first issue but typically not the most recent 3-5 years.

SuperSearch
Searches books, journal articles, newspaper articles, and other resources available through Wellesley. Limit your search to academic & peer-reviewed journal articles using the filtering options on your search results screen.

Environmental Studies and Policy (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Over 3.3 million articles on global warming, climate change, soil, plants, agronomy, and more. The database includes diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policymakers, and corporate interests.
ERIC (Education Resource Information Center) This link opens in a new window
Education articles and reports, 1966 to present.
Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles and books on women's studies, feminism, and gender studies, 1972 to present

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Citations to journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations from the international scholarly literature of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines, 1840 to present.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Articles in all fields of medicine and biomedicine, with abstracts and links to additional resources from the National Library of Medicine, 1950 to present.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) This link opens in a new window
Index with abstracts to the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences 1973 to present.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to publications on literature, linguistics, film, and folklore, from all cultures, 1963 to present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations.