- Annual Reviews (Harvard Login)State-of-the-art overviews written by experts in the field, offering context, background, and references to seminal texts in one convenient location. Covers, among many other disciplines, economics, political science, resource economics, and sociology.
- Oxford Bibliographies (Harvard Login)Concise, continuously updated bibliographies on a wide range of topics covering a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
- Oxford Handbooks Online (Harvard Login)Collection of handbooks surveying subfields of the major social science disciplines; e.g., various fields of political science, sociology, or economics.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (Harvard Login)Provides detailed synopses of major research problems and themes in international relations, with extensive bibliographies.
The place to start searching for books (both print and electronic) is Harvard's library catalog, HOLLIS:
Search tips:
- Sign in to HOLLIS with your Harvard Key for the most complete results and a more streamlined user experience.
- Use the "Library Catalog" search option (not "Everything") if you're looking specifically for books, journals, or previous PAEs.
- Use filters and facets to refine your search results if necessary, or use the advanced search option for more targeted searches.
Scholarly articles
For scholarly articles, start with one or several of our broad, multi-disciplinary databases:- Academic Search Premier (Harvard Login) Multidisciplinary database covering primarily the social sciences and humanities, with decent coverage of the sciences. Full text access may not be available for all citations; click on the "Try Harvard Library" links to check if full text is available elsewhere.
- Google Scholar Harvests citation metadata (and some full text) of scholarly literature from a broad range of publisher websites, institutional repositories, etc.; for maximum utility, link your Harvard Library affiliation to Google Scholar.
- Social Science Premium Collection (Harvard Login) Comprehensive database of social science scholarship, covering the disciplines of political science, sociology, criminology, education, linguistics, and information science.
- Web of Science (Harvard Login) Multidisciplinary database containing citations of primarily science and social science scholarship; particularly helpful for citation analysis. Click on the "Try Harvard Library" links to find the full text of an article.
Then, explore the more specialized resources recommended in our subject-specific research guides (e.g., International Development, International Relations, or National & International Security) -- see the tab on the right.
Policy papers and other gray literature
First, 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). List of types of grey literature.
Also of interest:
- Policy File Index (Harvard Login)Abstracts of and links to domestic and international public policy research published by think tanks, university programs, and other research organizations.
- RePEc: Research Papers in EconomicsProvides links to working papers and journal articles in economics. We recommend the IDEAS service.
- SSRN: Social Science Research NetworkContains working papers in social science, law and business/economics fields. Registration is required.
Most past PAEs can be discovered in HOLLIS. If you know the title and/or author, you can use these to search for the PAE. You can also enter "policy analysis exercise" using quotes in your search and add keywords to find relevant PAEs.
Here are some example searches including keywords:
Starting with the MPP class of 2020, PAEs are available electronically. Earlier PAEs can be requested in print using the "request pickup" option on their respective HOLLIS record; they will be delivered to the HKS Library and can be used in the library only.
For help with searching and finding PAEs, go to How do I find PAEs that are held at the HKS Library.
Most HKS Library research guides have sections on data and statistical resources relevant to the particular topic. When in doubt, you can also always check the guide to Data Resources for HKS Affiliates, which provides information about general data resources, data security, and data management, among others.