Guides: Policy Research Guide: Think Tanks and Public Opinion

Key to Icons

Public policy research and analysis is often the province of non-profit research organizations known as think tanks.

The annual Global Go To Think Tank Index Report identifies and ranks both U.S. and international research centers by subject areas.

Think Tank Directories:

Nippon Institute for Research Advancement's World Directory of Think Tanks The NIRA directory lists 450 policy institutions and think tanks in almost 100 countries and regions throughout the world.
Open Think Tank Directory The Open Think Tank Directory captures information about more than 2700 think tanks from around the globe.
Worldpress Review Online's Think Tank Directory An alphabetical index of think tanks and research organizations.

Policy File Index
Indexes research and publications from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers. Each item includes an abstract and, where available, access to the full-text of the report and/or the homepages and email addresses of the authoring institution.
Policy Commons
Policy Commons is a one-stop community platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. It treats think-tank publishing as a formal body of literature in its own right, with tools to systematically search it, cite it, understand its impact, catalog it, and preserve it for the long term.

Public opinion may influence the creation of policy statements. For resources on public opinion and polling, please see Lauinger Library's Public Opinion and Polling Research Guide. For datasets and statistics, see our Statistics and Empirical Legal Studies Research Guide.