Journal Articles

The best place to start searching for journal articles is in one of the following databases, which collect publications from sociology, political science and policy studies, economics, and a range of other disciplines that contribute to the field of urban studies:

You can also try browsing individual journals in the field. Some of the most frequently cited include:

Gray Literature

NEW! For a limited time, you have trial access to Policy Commons' North American City Reports, a collection of policy reports issued or commissioned by cities across the U.S. You must be on the HKS VPN to gain access. Since this is a trial, we would greatly appreciate any feedback you're willing to share about this resource. Thank you in advance!

 

For policy papers and other publications by international relations and foreign policy think tanks, try our HKS Think Tank Search, a custom Google search across the websites of 1,200+ U.S. and international think tanks. 

Simply search using standard Google conventions (i.e. putting quotation marks around phrases):

 

Among the think tanks included, some are particularly useful for research in urban studies and urban policy:
Finally, try this database for more policy briefs, working papers, etc.:

Books

To find books at Harvard, search HOLLIS, our library catalog:

 
For help with HOLLIS, see the HOLLIS User Guide.

If your results seem very "noisy," try searching by subject headings (under the advanced search tab), for example:

  • Sociology, Urban
  • Urban policy (you can add the name of a country after this heading for even more specific results)
  • Community development, Urban
  • Urban economics
  • City planning

Related Research Guides

For additional resources in closely related fields, check the following research guides, curated by librarians across Harvard Library: