Start your research here for an overview of the research process and some ideas about where and how to look for information

Books

Use the SFU Library Catalogue to find books. Search by title or author, or search by keyword for books on a topic. Searching by Subject  Heading can also be helpful, such as:

• Canada -- Economic Policy
• Medical Policy -- Canada
• Environmental Policy -- Canada
• Canada -- Social Policy
• Indigenous Peoples -- Canada -- Government Relations

For more tips on effective searching, use the SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide.

See also New books in Public Policy

Journal article databases

Key databases

Some key databases for Public Policy are listed below.  For additional databases that may be relevant to research in Public Policy, please see the complete list of databases for Public Policy.  See also databases for  Health Policy and databases for  Statistical Sources

ECONLIT
Database for world economic literature 

Geobase 
Database of research articles about human and physical geography topics including housing and transportation

International Political Science Abstracts
Comprehensive, global database providing access to abstracts and information on world-wide political science journals

Political Science Complete
Access to full-text political science articles

Sociological Abstracts
Access to comprehensive sociology database, including research pertinent to public policy

Key Public Policy databases that contain reports and backgrounders (but not scholarly articles)

Canada Commons.
Canadian public policy documents from government and nonprofit organizations as well as think tanks

Canadian Research Index 
Access to "all depository publications of research value issued by both the federal government and the ten provinces and three territories"

News article databases

Some key resources for searching Canadian and international news:

• Canadian Newsstream Database for major Canadian and small market BC newspapers articles
• PressReader  Access to current newspapers from around the world
• Alternative Press Index Database for journal, news, and magazine articles from alternative and/or radical publications
• Keesing's Record of World Events Up-to-date entries about worldwide political and economic affairs
• Factiva Comprehensive database the provides access to full-text articles from newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more
• Nexis Uni Comprehensive, full-text database information in "the areas of news, government, business, and law from newspapers, journals, reports, cases, and patents"

Key journals for Public Policy

(peer-reviewed unless otherwise indicated)

• American political science review "political science's premier scholarly research journal"
• BC studies  "a quarterly devoted to the understanding of British Columbia"
• Canadian journal of political science "original research articles...all areas of political science" 
• Canadian public administration "scholarly publication of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)"
• Canadian public policy "Canada's foremost journal examining economic and social policy"
• Comparative politics "devoted to the comparative analysis of political institutions and behavior"
• European journal of political research "study of comparative European politics...articulating conceptual and comparative perspectives"
• Governance "theoretical and practical discussion of executive politics, public policy, administration" (ceased 2016)
• How Ottawa spends "annual review of the federal government’s spending and public policy" not pr (ceased)
• Journal of policy analysis and management "issues and practices in policy analysis and public management"
• Journal of public policy "applies social science theories and concepts to significant political, economic and social issues"
• PS: political science & politics "critical analyses of contemporary political phenomena " 
• Policy & politics "to bring together contemporary politics and policy research from a variety of disciplines and international perspectives"
• Policy sciences "normative aspects of policy sciences;conceptual articles addressing concrete policy issues"
• Policy studies journal "theoretically and empirically grounded research on policy process and policy analysis"
• Public administration "articles on all facets of public administration, public policy and public management"
• Public administration review "the only journal in public administration that serves both academics and practitioners"
• Public policy and administration "material within the broad field of public policy and administration"
• Studies in political economy "original work in the various traditions of socialist political economy"

See also the list of Online journals for Public Policy